THE  SECRETS  OF 
POLAR  TRAVEL 

Rear  Admiral  ROBERT  E.  PEARY 


SECRETS  OF  POLAR 
TRAVEL 


THE   STAKS   AM)    STBIPES    FLYING    FKOA1    THE    NORTH    POLE 


SECRETS  OF  POLAR 
TRAVEL 


BY 


ROBERT  E.  PEARY 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH 
PHOTOGRAPHS 


*%wjvxv*«? 


NEW  YORK 

THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1917 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
The  Centuby  Co. 


Published,  October,  1917 


INTRODUCTION 

In  my  book  "The  North  Pole"  appeared  a  brief 
resume,  or  synopsis,  of  my  system  of  arctic  ex- 
ploration, which  was  the  evolution  of  years  of 
continuous  practical  work  and  experience  in  ex- 
treme high  latitudes,  wherein  everything  that 
could  be  thought  of  in  the  way  of  perfecting  arctic 
methods  and  equipment  was  worked  out. 

Ideas  that  in  the  mind  or  on  paper  appeared 
promising  were  tested  relentlessly  under  the  most 
hostile  conditions.  Those  that  failed  under  the 
test  were  abandoned,  and  those  that  gave  evidence 
of  containing  some  meat  were  perfected,  until  at 
last  the  entire  subject  of  perfected  equipment  and 
methods,  combined  with  the  thorough  knowledge 
of  all  conditions  to  be  encountered  gained  through 
years  of  experience,  compelled  success.  This 
was  the  resume: 

The  so-called  "Peary  System"  is  too  complex  to  be  covered 
in  a  paragraph,  and  involves  too  many  technical  details  to  be 
outlined  fully  in  any  popular  narrative.  But  the  main  points 
of  it  are  about  as  follows: 

To  drive  a  ship  through  the  ice  to  the  farthest  possible 
northern  land  base  from  which  she  can  be  driven  back  again 
the  following  year. 


4-3  £■%  3 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

To  do  enough  bunting  during  the  fall  and  winter  to  keep  the 
party  healthily  supplied  with  fresh  meat. 

To  have  dogs  enough  to  allow  for  the  loss  of  sixty  per  cent 
of  them  by  death  or  otherwise. 

To  have  the  confidence  of  a  large  number  of  Eskimos,  earned 
by  square  dealing  and  generous  gifts  in  the  past,  so  that  they 
will  follow  the  leader  to  any  point  he  may  specify. 

To  have  an  intelligent  and  willing  body  of  civilized  assist- 
ants to  lead  the  various  divisions  of  Eskimos — men  whose  au- 
thority the  Eskimos  will  accept  when  delegated  by  the 
leader. 

To  transport  beforehand  to  the  point  where  the  expedition 
leaves  the  land  for  the  sledge  journey,  sufficient  food,  fuel, 
clothing,  stoves  (oil  or  alcohol)  and  other  mechanical  equip- 
ment to  get  the  main  party  to  the  Pole  and  back  and  the  vari- 
ous divisions  to  their  farthest  north  and  back. 

To  have  an  ample  supply  of  the  best  kind  of  sledges. 

To  have  a  sufficient  number  of  divisions,  or  relay  parties, 
each  under  the  leadership  of  a  competent  assistant,  to  send 
back  at  appropriate  and  carefully  calculated  stages  along  the 
upward  journey. 

To  have  every  item  of  equipment  of  the  quality  best  suited 
to  the  purpose,  thoroughly  tested,  and  of  the  lightest  possible 
weight. 

To  know,  by  long  experience,  the  best  way  to  cross  wide 
leads  of  open  water. 

To  return  by  the  same  route  followed  on  the  upward  march, 
using  the  beaten  trail  and  the  already  constructed  igloos  to 
save  the  time  and  strength  that  would  have  been  expended  in 
constructing  new  igloos  and  in  trail-breaking. 

To  know  exactly  to  what  extent  each  man  and  dog  may  be 
worked  without  injury. 

To  know  the  physical  and  mental  capabilities  of  every  as- 
sistant and  Eskimo. 

Last,  but  not  least,  to  have  the  absolute  confidence  of  every 
member  of  the  party,  white,  black,  or  brown,  so  that  every  order 
of  the  leader  will  be  implicitly  obeyed. 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

In  ''Secrets  of  Polar  Travel"  it  is  the  intention 
to  enlarge  upon  the  above  synopsis  and  to  give 
the  reader  and  the  present  and  future  polar  trav- 
eler many  details  of  serious  polar  work  that  it 
was  impossible  to  embody  in  my  former  popular 
narratives  without  crowding  out  other  and,  as  it 
seemed,  more  important  matters. 

Some  of  the  things  that  will  be  described  are 
well  known  to  all  polar  explorers  who  have  had 
serious  practice,  while  others  will  be  new  to  all 
except  those  who  have  had  opportunities  to  obtain 
the  information  by  personal  conversation  with 
members  of  my  parties. 

In  extending  the  scope  of  the  present  book  to 
touch  on  polar  exploration,  it  seems  well  to  post 
the  reader  at  the  very  beginning  on  the  striking 
antitheses  of  natural  conditions,  apparently 
known  to  only  a  few  even  among  the  best  read 
and  most  intelligent  people,  existing  at  those 
mathematical  points,  the  north  and  south  poles, 
where  the  earth's  axis  intersects  the  surface  of 
the  earth. 

The  north  pole  is  situated  in  an  ocean  of  some 
fifteen  hundred  miles'  diameter,  surrounded  by 
land.  The  south  pole  is  situated  in  a  continent  of 
some  twenty-five  hundred  miles'  diameter,  sur- 
rounded by  water.  At  the  north  pole  I  stood 
upon  the  frozen  surface  of  an  ocean  more  than 
two  miles  in  depth.  At  the  south  pole,  Amundsen 
and  Scott  stood  upon  the  surface  of  a  great,  snow 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

plateau  more  than  two  miles  above  sea-level. 
The  lauds  that  surround  the  north  polar  ocean 
have  comparatively  abundant  life.  Musk-oxen, 
reindeer,  polar  bears,  wolves,  foxes,  arctic  hares, 
ermines,  and  lemmings,  together  with  insects  and 
flowers,  are  found  within  five  hundred  miles  of 
the  pole.  On  the  great  south  polar  continent  no 
form  of  animal  life  appears  to  exist. 

Permanent  human  life  exists  within  some  seven 
hundred  miles  of  the  north  pole;  none  is  found 
within  twenty-three  hundred  miles  of  the  south 
pole.  The  history  of  arctic  exploration  goes  back 
nearly  four  hundred  years.  The  history  of  ant- 
arctic efforts  covers  a  little  more  than  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  years.  The  record  of  arctic  ex- 
ploration is  studded  with  crushed  and  founder- 
ing ships  and  the  deaths  of  hundreds  of  brave 
men.  The  records  of  antarctic  exploration  show 
the  loss  of  only  three  ships  and  the  death  of  a 
score  or  more  men. 

For  all  those  who  aspire  to  the  north  pole  the 
road  lies  over  the  frozen  surface  of  an  ocean  the 
ice  on  which  breaks  up  completely  every  summer, 
drifting  about  under  the  influence  of  wind  and 
tide,  and  may  crack  into  numerous  fissures  and 
lanes  of  open  water  at  any  time,  even  in  the  depth 
of  the  severest  winter,  under  the  influence  of 
storms.  For  those  who  aspire  to  the  south  pole 
the  road  lies  over  an  eternal,  immovable  surface, 
the  latter  part  rising  ten  thousand  and  eleven 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

thousand  feet  above  sea-level.  And  herein  lies 
the  inestimable  advantage  to  the  south  polar  ex- 
plorer which  enables  him  to  make  his  depots  at 
convenient  distances,  and  thus  lighten  his  load 
and  increase  his  speed. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PA0E 

I  Building  a  Polar  Ship 3 

II  Selecting  Men 40 

III  Supplies  and  Equipment 58 

IV  Ice  Navigation 84 

V  Winter  Quarters 126 

VI    Polar  Clothing 160 

VII    Utilization  of  Eskimos  and  Dogs     .     .     .  179 
VIII    Utilizing  the  Resources  of  the  Country  206 

IX    Sledge  Equipment 240 

X    Sledge-traveling 267 

Conclusion 310 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The  Stars  and  Stripes  Flying  from  the  North  Pole     Frontispiece 

Beginning  of  the  "Roosevelt" 5 

Midships  Cross  Section  of  the  "Roosevelt" 5 

Stem,  Forefoot,  and  Bow  Frames 11 

Massive  King-Post  Trusses  Strengthening  the  '"Roosevelt's" 

Sides  Against  Ice  Pressure 11 

Bow  of  "Roosevelt"  in  Dry  Dock 18 

Stern  of  "Roosevelt"  in  Dry  Dock 24 

Putting    on    the    Greenheart    Ice-Sheathing 30 

Bow  of  the  "Roosevelt"  in  Ice 35 

Launching  the  "Roosevelt" 35 

Captain  Rohert  Bartlett 41 

Matthew  A.  Henson 47 

Henson  in  Full  Winter  Costume  with  Snowshoes     ...  47 

Oo-tah 53 

George  Borup 53 

Whale  Meat  for  Dog  Food 64 

Lahrador  Whaling  Steamer 69 

Off  for  Whales— Labrador   Coast 69 

Dunham    Snowshoes 76 

Items  of  Sledge  Rations 76 

Beginning  the  North  Pole  Voyage 85 

Drying  Sails  on  the   'Roosevelt"  at  Cape  Sheridan      ...  95 

Shear-Poles  for  Handling  the  "Roosevelt's"  Injured  Rudder  95 

Comparative  Pictures  of  Various  Exploring  Ships      .      .      .  101 

Ice  Navigation  before  the  Advent  of  Powerful  Steamers     .  108 

The  "Roosevelt"  Beset   in  Wrangel   Bay 108 

The  "Roosevelt"  Steaming   through   the   Ice-Pack      .      .      .  117 
Floe   in   Lady   Franklin    Bay   That   Lifted   the   "Roosevelt" 

Nearly  Clear  of  Water 117 

The  "Roosevelt"  Lashed  to  the  Ice  Foot 123 

In    the   Crow's-Nest 123 

Complete  Polar  Winter   House 130 

A  Scene  at  Hubbardville 130 

After  a  Winter  Blizzard 139 

Unloading  Ship  at  Winter  Quarters 139 

An   Inopportune  Snowstorm 150 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Polar  Clothing 163 

A   "Tug   of   War" 163 

Polar  Clothing — Spring  and  Summer  Working  Costume      .  169 

Polar  Clothing — Full  Winter  Sledging  Costume   ....  175 

Eskimo   Dogs 175 

Young  Eskimo   Mother   and   Baby 181 

Eskimo  Family  and  "Tupik,"  or  Summer  Tent     ....  181 

Deck  Scene  on  the  "Roosevelt"   (Not  a  Pink  Tea!)    ...  187 

Some  of  My  Hunters 187 

Eskimo  Man.  Summer  Costume 194 

Eskimo   Woman.   Full   Summer   Costume 194 

Eskimo  King  Dog 203 

Giant  Polar  Bear  Killed  in  Buchanan  Bay,  July  4     .  209 

Bringing    Narwhal    Ashore 216 

Walrus-Hunters  and  Their  Kill 216 

A  Magnificent  Bull  Musk-Ox 225 

Reindeer  of  83°  N.  Lat 225 

Securing  Birds  at  the  Bird  Cliffs 236 

Hare  Hunting  at  83°   N.   Lat 236 

Eskimo   Type    Sledge 245 

One  of  the  Peary  Sledges 245 

Polar    Sledge    Costume 251 

Compass  Course   Indicator 258 

Peary   Sledge   in   Action 258 

Hugging  the  Shore  to  Get  Around  Huge  Ice  Fields     .      .  271 

Party  Leaving  the  "Roosevelt"  for  Cape  Columbia     .      .      .  271 

Over   a   Pressure  Ridge 281 

A  Halt  on  the  March 281 

Sledge  Party  on  the  March  with  Good  Going 287 

Hard    Going 287 

Crossing   Narrow   Lead 298 

Through  a  Cafion  of  the  Polar  Ocean 298 


SECRETS  OF  POLAR 
TRAVEL 


SECRETS  OF  POLAR 
TRAVEL 

CHAPTER  I 

BUILDING  A  POLAR  SHIP 

OF  all  the  special  tools  that  a  polar  explorer 
requires  for  the  successful  prosecution  of 
his  work,  his  ship  stands  first  and  preeminent. 
This  is  the  tool  which  is  to  place  him  and  his 
party  and  supplies  within  striking  distance  of  his 
goal,  the  tool  without  which  he  can  accomplish 
nothing. 

The  builder  of  a  polar  ship  should  live  with  his 
craft  from  the  time  the  keel  is  laid  till  she  is  com- 
plete and  has  made  her  trial  trips.  He  should 
see  that  every  timber  that  goes  into  her  is  sound, 
tough,  and  seasoned.  He  should  see  the  tests  of 
iron  for  her  bolts,  and  know  that  the  iron  is  tough 
and  homogeneous.  He  should  see  the  bolts  driven 
and  upset,  or  the  nuts  set  tight,  as  the  case  may 
be.  He  should  direct  the  scarfing  and  the  notch- 
ing of  the  timbers  in  order  to  secure  the  maximum 
strength  and  binding  grip.  He  should  watch  the 
calking  and  the  tarring  like  a  hawk,  and  see  that 

3 


4  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

no  place  is  slighted,  that,  when  it  is  done,  he  may 
have  that  delight  of  a  seaman,  a  tight  ship.  He 
should  pass  sleepless  nights  going  over  again  and 
again  the  calculations  for  his  engines  and  boilers; 
and  in  checking  and  rechecking  weights,  dimen- 
sions, displacement. 

In  this  way,  by  following  every  step  of  the 
ship's  growth,  and  sitting  up  night  after  night 
studying  every  detail  with  a  view  to  improving 
and  strengthening  it,  when  the  work  is  done,  he 
will  know  every  inch  of  his  ship  inside  and  out. 
Later,  in  the  grim,  protracted  fight  with  the  ice, 
he  will  feel  in  regard  to  his  ship  as  Sullivan  and 
Willard  each  felt  on  the  eve  of  a  great  battle  re- 
garding his  powerful  body,  that  it  can  be  depended 
upon  absolutely.  It  is  a  wonderfully  satisfactory 
feeling,  and  it  counts  far  toward  success. 

A  quite  general  idea  regarding  the  work  of  a 
polar  ship  seems  to  be  that  such  a  ship  breaks  up 
the  ice  of  one  season,  like  river  and  harbor  ice- 
breakers. As  a  matter  of  fact,  smooth,  unbroken 
ice  of  uniform  thickness  is  rarely  found  in  North- 
ern voyages  except  in  Melville  Bay,  or  at  the  end 
of  the  season,  when  new  ice  is  forming.  The 
chief  work  of  a  polar  ship  is  to  push  and  pry  and 
wedge  its  way  in  and  out  among  cakes  and  floes 
ranging  from  three  to  twenty  or  fifty  and  even  up 
to  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  thick.  A  passage 
cannot  be  smashed  through  such  ice,  and  nothing 
remains   but   to    squeeze    and   twist    and   dodge 


BEGINNING   OF  THE      ROOSEVELT 
Plrsl    frame  erected,   ship   now   under  construction,    Bucksport,    Maine, 

October,  193  I 


MIDSHIPS    CROSS    SECTION    OF    THE    "ROOSEVELT" 
Looking  aft.     Note  section   nearly  a   semi-circle 


BUILDING  A  POLAR  SHIP  7 

through  it.  A  hundred  Yermaks  (the  powerful 
Russian  ice  breaker)  merged  in  one  could  accom- 
plish nothing  in  such  ice. 

Many  qualities  are  necessary  in  a  first-class  po- 
lar ice-fighter.  First,  there  must  be  such  a  gen- 
erally rounded  model  as  will  rise  readily  when 
squeezed,  and  thus  escape  the  death-crush  of  the 
ice.  Then  there  must  be  no  projection  of  keel  or 
other  part  to  give  the  ice  an  opportunity  to  get  a 
grip,  or  to  hold  the  shijD  from  rising. 

When  the  Jeannette  was  destroyed  northeast  of 
the  New  Siberian  Islands,  the  ice  on  one  side  of 
her  caught  and  held  her  firmly,  while  the  floe  on 
the  other  side,  turning  down  under  her  side, 
caught  the  keel,  and  with  its  resistless  pressure 
opened  up  the  ship  her  entire  length  along  the 
garboard-strake.  She  then  filled,  and  when  the 
ice  pressure  was  released  she  sank. 

The  polar  ship  must  be  most  heavily  braced  and 
trussed  to  enable  it  to  withstand  terrific  pressure 
of  ice-floes,  and  hold  its  shape  until  the  pres- 
sure is  released  by  the  rising  of  the  ship;  or  to 
make  it  possible  for  her  to  be  supported  at  each 
end  only  or  in  the  middle,  or  thrown  out  on  to 
the  ice,  so  she  would  rest  on  her  bilge  during  a 
convulsion  of  the  floes,  without  strain  or  injury. 
Power  and  strength  and  solidity  to  fight  a  way 
through  ice  rather  than  drift  inertly  with  it,  are 
absolutely  essential.  For  ramming,  she  must  have 
a  sharply  raking  stem,  which  will  rise  on  the  ice 


8  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

at  each  blow.  This  not  only  makes  it  possible  for 
a  loaded  ship  to  deliver  blows  at  full  speed  with- 
out danger  of  smashing  in  her  bows  or  starting  her 
fastenings  or  seams,  but  also  gives  her  an  initial 
impetus  astern  when  she  backs  for  another  blow. 

When  it  is  understood  that  this  ramming  may- 
continue  for  hours  (I  have  used  my  ship  in  this 
way  continuously  for  twenty-four  hours  in  cross- 
ing Melville  Bay),  striking  a  blow,  backing,  then 
going  ahead  full  speed  for  another,  the  value  of 
this  little  assistance  with  each  blow  will  be  ap- 
preciated. The  shape  of  the  bow  is  also  impor- 
tant in  ramming.  If  too  bluff,  headway  is  dead- 
ened, and  the  force  of  the  blows  is  lessened.  If 
too  sharp,  the  ship  may  stick  at  each  blow,  and  re- 
quire more  time  and  power  to  back  out  each  time. 
The  run  of  the  polar  ship  should  be  full  rather 
than  fine,  to  keep  the  passing  ice  away  from  the 
propeller  as  much  as  possible. 

The  ship  must  be  as  short  as  practicable  and 
have  a  lively  helm  to  enable  her  to  twist  and  turn 
rapidly  and  sharply  through  the  narrow,  tortuous 
lanes  of  water  among  the  ice-fields. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  a  ship  for  arctic  or 
antarctic  work  must  be  as  small  as  the  size  of  the 
party  and  the  amount  of  supplies,  equipment,  and 
coal  for  the  proposed  work  will  permit.  The 
smaller  a  ship  can  be  built,  the  greater  will  be  her 
strength  and  the  ease  with  which  she  can  be  han- 
dled. 


BUILDING  A  POLAR  SHIP  9 

Finally  the  polar  ship  must  be  a  good  sea  boat 
to  ride  out  the  furious  autumn  gales  of  the  North 
Atlantic  and  polar  oceans. 

This  is  especially  important  in  South  Polar  work 
with  its  long  voyage  and  cyclonic  blizzards. 

Many  are  under  the  impression  that  steel  should 
be  used  in  constructing  polar  ships.  This  idea 
is  erroneous,  for  though  a  ship  so  made  would  be 
strong  structurally,  she  would  be  particularly 
vulnerable  to  the  ragged,  sharp  corners  of  heavy 
ice.  Wood,  with  its  elasticity  and  toughness,  is 
the  prime  essential  in  the  construction  of  a  ship 
of  this  kind.  It  is  also  virtually  impossible  to 
repair  injury  to  a  steel  ship  during  the  voyage. 
But  steel  and  methods  of  composite  ship  building, 
used  in  a  vessel's  interior,  may  reduce  weight  and 
increase  her  strength. 

Numbers  of  failures  and  catastrophes  in  polar 
work  are  directly  attributable  to  the  unsuitable 
model  of  the  ship.  Particularly  striking  examples 
of  this  were  the  Polaris  and  the  Jeannette. 
Neither  of  these  ships  should  ever  have  been  al- 
lowed to  go  into  the  ice,  as  their  straight  sides 
gave  them  no  possible  chance  to  lift  when  squeezed 
by  the  ice,  and  their  destruction  was  only  a  mat- 
ter of  time,  when  they  should  be  squarely  caught 
between  two  floes.  In  the  case  of  the  Jeannette 
Melville's  engineering  skill  postponed  the  catas- 
trophe for  a  time,  but  the  final  result  was  in- 
evitable. 


10  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

The  Esquimaux  of  the  Ziegler  Expedition  and 
the  Duke  of  the  Abruzzi's  Stella  Polar e  were 
scarcely  better,  but  the  skill  of  the  Italians  enabled 
their  ship  to  pull  through  and  bring  the  party 
home. 

Virtually  all  the  ships  used  in  the  history  of  ice 
navigation  have  been  the  sailing-vessels  built  in 
Scotland,  Norway,  and  the  United  States  for  the 
whaling  and  sealing  industries.  These  whalers 
were  short,  stocky,  heavily  sparred,  and  square 
rigged.  The  Victory,  used  by  John  Ross,  in  1829, 
was  fitted  with  auxiliary  steam-power,  and  was 
the  first  attempt  to  utilize  such  motive  power  for 
ice  work.  The  innovation  of  steam  with  paddle- 
wheels,  than  which  nothing  could  have  been  more 
impracticable  for  ice  navigation,  proved  a  decided 
failure,  and  the  engine  was  finally  torn  out  and 
thrown  overboard,  and  the  voyage  continued  under 
sail. 

The  Norwegians  operating  in  the  waters  about 
Spitzbergen,  Jan  Mayen,  and  Nova  Zembla;  the 
Americans,  in  Bering  Sea  and  Hudson  Bay,  en- 
countered ice  conditions  strikingly  different  from 
those  met  by  the  Scotch  whose  region  of  opera- 
tions was  chiefly  in  Davis  Strait,  Baffin  Bay,  Lan- 
caster Sound,  together  with  their  tributaries,  and 
the  seas  about  eastern  Greenland.  Broadly  speak- 
ing, the  work  of  Norwegians  and  Americans  was 
carried  on  among  floes  and  broken  ice  drifting  in 
open  seas,  through  which  they  had  to  thread  their 


--•  :•  ► 


BUILDING  A  rOLAIt  SHIP  13 

way,  while  the  Scotch  in  Melville  Bay  encountered 
an  almost  solid  stretch  of  one  season's  ice,  and  in 
the  narrow,  land-locked  channels  to  the  westward 
the  currents  of  which  are  notoriously  strong,  they 
had  to  contend  with  old  and  heavier  ice.  Some 
one  has  very  aptly  said  that  American  whalers 
used  steam  to  avoid  ice,  the  Scotch,  to  go  into  and 
through  it. 

The  following  average  proportions  of  beam  to 
length  among  these  whalers  is  rather  interesting : 
Scotch,  1:5.75;  Norwegian,  1:4.7;  American, 
1 : 4.5.  The  average  ratio  in  modern  schooners 
built  in  Bath  is  1 :  4.78. 

The  Scotch,  thanks  to  the  shrewdness  of  their 
seamen  and  builders  and  over  one  hundred  years 
of  experience  in  whaling  work,  where  the  best 
ships  secured  large  financial  returns,  have  gradu- 
ally evolved  the  more  powerful  and  efficient  typo 
of  ship,  and  this  type  has  been  used  exclusively 
by  the  British  even  in  their  latest  expeditions. 

It  had  long  been  a  recognized  fact  that  a  form 
of  hull  which  would  permit  a  ship  to  rise  readily 
and  easily  under  pressure  was  desirable ;  yet  the 
Fram  was  the  first  ship  built  to  meet  this  require- 
ment. The  Fram  was  built  with  a  special  view 
to  drifting  in  and  with  the  ice.  Her  beam  was 
about  one-third  her  length,  and  her  hull  was  so 
designed  as  to  allow  her  to  rise  easily  under  pres- 
sure. While  she  was  well  adapted  for  this  work, 
she  would  have  been  still  better  fitted  for  it  if  she 


U  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

had  been  bowl-shaped.  Moreover,  appearance, 
speed,  ability  to  push  through  the  ice,  and  virtu- 
ally everything  that  goes  to  make  a  ship  seaworthy 
was  sacrificed  to  insure  this  quality. 

The  Gauss,  the  German  antarctic  ship,  was  much 
like  the  Fram,  though  less  pronounced  in  type, 
having  a  broad  beam  of  36  feet,  but  with  a  greater 
length  to  make  her  more  seaworthy  for  the  long 
voyage  to  the  antarctic  regions.  Her  ratio  is 
1:4.25  as  compared  with  the  F ram's  ratio  of 
1:3.25. 

The  British  Discovery,  built  for  antarctic  ex- 
ploration, was  also  of  the  sailing  type,  with 
auxiliary  steam-power.  She  was  built  with  a  lit- 
tle broader  beam  and  a  draft  slightly  less  than 
that  of  the  Scotch  whalers,  with  a  ratio  of  1 :  5.27. 
She  differed  from  the  Fram  and  the  Gauss  in  that 
she  was  not  specially  constructed  to  rise  under 
pressure,  and  the  rake  of  her  stem  was  somewhat 
greater  than  in  previous  ships. 

With  the  building  of  the  Roosevelt  came  a  com- 
plete reversal  of  former  practice  in  ships  for  the 
arctic  and  antarctic  regions.  She  was  the  first 
Polar  ship  built  that  was  first  of  all  a  powerful 
steamer.  All  her  predecessors  had  been  sailing- 
vessels,  usually  full-rigged  barks,  with  steam  as 
a  secondary  consideration.  This  was  done  to 
economize  on  coal  and  enable  the  ship  to  cover 
long  distances  at  slow  speed  and  be  gone  for 
years,  if  necessary. 


BUILDING  A  TOLAR  SHIP  15 

In  the  Roosevelt  sail  power  was  a  mere  auxil- 
iary, and  everything  was  given  over  to  making 
steam-power  first  and  foremost  and  her  strength 
sufficient  to  withstand  the  ice.  This  is  undoubt- 
edly the  correct  principle  on  which  to  build  any 
Polar  ship  for  effective  results.  For  this  method 
the  Smith  Sound  route  is  specially  advantageous, 
affording  a  coasting  voyage,  ample  facilities  for 
caching  coal,  as  well  as  presenting  opportunities 
to  obtain  coal  en  route. 

As  the  Roosevelt  was  to  be  built  for  navigating 
the  very  seas  where  the  Scotch  gained  their  valu- 
able experience  and  for  which  their  ships  were 
specially  designed  and  improved,  the  Scotch  model 
seemed  the  proper  one  to  use  as  a  base  for  studies. 

In  the  case  of  Nansen,  and  the  British  and 
German  polar  expeditions,  the  size  of  the  ship 
was  determined  by  fixing  the  size  of  the  party,  the 
length  of  the  expedition,  and  the  amount  of  coal 
which  would  be  consumed  by  the  engines  and  the 
cargo  to  be  carried,  all  of  which  factors,  when  the 
dead  weight  of  the  ship  and  machinery  was  added, 
would  give  the  displacement  required. 

In  the  case  of  the  Roosevelt  I  believed  it  advis- 
able to  settle  in  advance  the  size  and  proportions 
which  would  come  nearest  to  balancing  and  meet- 
ing the  various  requirements,  allowing  the  differ- 
ence between  her  displacement  and  her  dead 
weight  to  go  for  cargo  capacity,  chief  of  which 
would  be  coal.     The  size  determined  was  184  feet 


16  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

over  all,  with  35  feet  beam  and  16  feet  draft, 
loaded,  and  a  load  water-line  of  166  feet.  These 
dimensions  make  her  almost  as  long  as,  but  with 
a  slightly  greater  beam  than,  the  Discovery,  the 
British  antarctic  ship.  Her  length  ratio,  while 
not  quite  as  fine  as  that  of  the  Scotch  model,  is 
much  finer  than  the  Norwegian  or  American  aver- 


ages. 


After  determining  her  length  and  beam,  came 
the  question  of  draft.  For  the  ship  navigating 
the  waters  of  Smith  Sound  a  light  draft  is  far 
better  than  a  heavier  one,  permitting  her  to  hug 
the  shore  in  order  to  get  round  barriers,  or,  when 
crowded  by  heavy  ice,  to  retreat  close  to  the  shore 
and  let  it  ground  outside  the  ship.  Another  dis- 
tinct advantage  of  light  draft  in  a  ship  is  the 
greater  ease  with  which  she  will  rise  under  the 
heavy  pressure  of  ice-floes.  The  greater  her 
draft,  the  harder  it  is  for  her  to  rise  and  avoid  the 
grip  of  the  ice. 

So  much  depends  on  the  ship  in  the  serious 
work  of  ice  navigation  that  it  may  be  well  to  de- 
scribe in  detail  the  ship  which  I  consider  the  ablest 
of  ice  fighters. 

The  official  measurements  of  the  Roosevelt  are 
as  follows:  length,  184  feet;  breadth,  35.5  feet; 
depth,  16.2  feet;  gross  registered  tonnage,  614 
tons;  maximum  load  displacement,  about  1500 
tons.  The  keel,  main  keelsons,  stem-  and  stern- 
posts,  frames,  plank  sheer,  waterways,  and  gar- 


BOW    OF      ROOSEVELT       IN    DKY    DOCK 
Note  massiveness   and    rounded,   egg-like  curves 


BUILDING  A  TOLAIt  SHIP  19 

board-strake,  arc  while  oak.  Beams,  sister-keel- 
sons, deck  clamps,  'tween-deck  waterways,  bilge- 
strakes,  ceiling,  and  inner  course  of  planking,  are 
yellow  pine.  The  outer  planking  is  white  oak  and 
the  decks  of  Oregon  pine.  Both  the  ceiling  and 
the  outer  course  of  white-oak  planking  are  edge- 
bolted  from  stem  to  stern,  and  from  plank  sheer 
to  garboard-strake.  The  fastenings  are  gal- 
vanized iron  bolts,  going  through  both  courses  of 
planking  and  the  frames,  and  riveting  up  over 
washers  on  the  inside  of  the  ceiling. 

The  great  oak  timbers  of  the  keel,  false  keel  and 
keelsons,  bolted  and  strapped  and  scarfed  together 
in  every  way  that  experience  and  ingenuity  could 
suggest  formed  a  rigid  backbone  over  six  feet 
high.  The  oak  timber  sources  were  searched  to 
secure  these  timbers,  and  some  of  them  perhaps 
could  not  be  duplicated  to-day. 

Massive  oak  timbers  formed  the  stem,  stern  and 
rudder  posts,  bolted  and  strapped  to  each  other 
and  to  the  keel. 

The  frames  or  ribs  of  the  Roosevelt  were  placed 
almost  close  together,  each  made  of  three  courses 
of  selected  timbers  bolted  together. 

At  the  stem  the  ribs  were  close  together  and  the 
triangular  space  at  the  bow  between  the  port  and 
starboard  ribs  was  filled  in  solid  for  a  distance 
of  some  ten  feet  aft  of  the  stem  with  oak  timbers 
bolted  and  scarfed  together  to  make  a  solid  ram, 
or  fighting  head  or  casstus. 


20  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

Main  deck  beams  and  'tween  deck  beams  were 
unusually  large  and  spaced  unusually  close  to- 
gether. The  latter  were  placed  on  a  water  line  in- 
stead of  with  a  sheer,  so  that  they  were  just  be- 
low the  load  water  line  where  the  severest  and 
most  frequent  ice  pressure  would  come. 

Each  main  deck  beam  together  with  the  'tween 
deck  beam  below  it,  and  four  stout  diagonal  braces 
to  the  ship 's  sides  and  a  2%"  vertical  steel  tie-rod 
from  the  bottom  of  the  keel  to  the  upper  side  of 
the  deck  binding  all  together,  formed  a  double 
king  post  truss,  one  superimposed  upon  the  other. 

This  truss  arrangement  was  made  possible  by 
my  method  of  housing  the  personnel  of  the  expedi- 
tion in  light  roomy  quarters  on  deck,  rather  than 
below  the  decks. 

The  sides  of  the  ship  varied  from  twenty-four 
to  thirty  inches  in  thickness.  These  sides,  sup- 
ported at  every  four  feet  of  the  ship's  length  by 
the  truss  system  above  described,  and  still  further 
reinforced  by  three  solid  timber  transverse  bulk- 
heads, were  immune  from  being  crushed  in. 

To  avoid  unnecessary  weight,  no  planking  was 
used  between  decks;  there  were  no  interior  fit- 
tings ;  and  spars  and  rigging  were  as  lightly  made 
as  possible.  The  hatch  coamings  were  of  stout 
white  oak,  built  almost  as  high  as  the  top  of  the 
bulwarks,  to  add  to  the  safety  of  the  ship  in  heavy 
weather. 

To  protect  her  planks  from  the  gnawing  of  the 


BUILDING  A  POLAR  SHIP  21 

ice  while  steaming  through  it,  as  well  as  to  reduce 
friction,  the  ship  was  surrounded  at  the  water  line 
with  an  armor  belt  of  dense  slippery  greenheart. 

This  wood  imported  from  Guiana  expressly  for 
the  purpose,  is  so  tough  and  dense  that  spikes  or 
bolts  cannot  be  driven  into  it  but  must  have  holes 
bored  for  them. 

The  shipyard  which  puts  on  the  greenheart 
usually  has  to  get  a  new  set  of  saws,  planers  and 
drills  for  the  next  job,  and  the  echoes  of  profanity 
linger  for  a  long  time. 

The  massive  construction  of  the  Roosevelt  so 
impressed  the  inhabitants  of  Bucksport,  accus- 
tomed to  usual  ship  building,  that  one  of  the  vil- 
lage oracles  is  to  said  to  have  delivered  himself 
around  the  glowing  stove  of  the  "hotel"  office  of 
the  following,  ' '  By  heck  there  's  so  much  wood  in 

the  d ship  that  she  '11  sink  when  they  launch 

her." 

After  the  hull  of  the  Roosevelt  was  completed, 
she  was  put  into  dry-dock  and  " watered";  that  is, 
water  was  pumped  into  her  to  detect  any  bolt-holes 
that  had  not  been  rilled  with  a  bolt,  or  any  seam 
that  had  been  overlooked  in  calking,  just  as  one 
would  test  a  pail  by  filling  it  with  water  to  see  if  it 
leaked. 

By  this  test  leaks  are  located  that  cannot  be  de- 
tected in  any  other  way,  and  the  explorer  during 
his  voyage  is  saved  the  maddening  annoyance  of 
listening  to  the  trickling  of  incoming  water  as  he 


22  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

lies  in  his  bunk  at  night,  of  the  daily  clank  of  the 
pumps,  and  of  a  ship  with  bilges  full  of  ice  at  the 
end  of  the  Polar  winter. 

In  regard  to  engine  power,  my  ideas  have  been 
radically  different  from  those  of  other  navigators. 
I  have  believed  in  all  the  power  it  was  possible  to 
get  into  the  ship.  I  know  of  few  more  comfort- 
able feelings  for  the  commander  of  a  ship  beset  in 
the  ice  than  the  knowledge  that  he  has  beneath 
his  feet  the  power  that  with  the  least  slackening 
of  the  ice  pressure  will  enable  him  to  force  his 
ship  ahead  on  her  course. 

The  motive  power  of  the  Roosevelt  consisted 
of  a  single,  inverted,  compound  engine,  capable 
of  developing  a  thousand  horse-power,  and  driv- 
ing an  eleven-foot  four-blade  propeller.  Two 
water-tube  boilers  and  one  Scotch  boiler  supplied 
steam. 

Two  specially  distinctive  features  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  Roosevelt  were  a  large  "by-pass," 
by  means  of  which,  by  turning  a  valve,  steam  from 
all  the  boilers  at  full  pressure  could  be  turned 
directly  into  the  big  fifty-two-inch  low-pressure 
cylinder,  more  than  doubling  the  power  for  a 
short  time;  that  is,  as  long  as  the  boilers  could 
meet  this  excessive  demand.  The  object  of  this 
was  to  give  me  a  reserve  of  power  with  which 
to  extricate  the  ship  from  a  particularly  dan- 
gerous position.  On  at  least  two  occasions  this 
device  accomplished  all  that  was  expected  of  it, 


BUILDING  A  POLAR  SHIP  25 

and,  by  resistlessly  forging  the  ship  ahead  a 
length  or  two  against  all  odds,  removed  her  from 
the  line  of  deadly  pressure,  and  so  saved  her. 

The  other  was  an  enormously  heavy  and  strong 
propeller  and  shaft.  The  shaft  was  a  twelve-inch 
diameter  solid  steel  forging,  a  shaft  big  enough 
for  a  2000-ton  tramp  steamer.  The  propeller  was 
correspondingly  heavy.  The  object  of  this  was  to 
prevent  the  complete  crippling  of  the  ship  by 
breaking  of  shaft  or  propeller. 

This  idea  entailed  unusual  weight  and  expense, 
but  it  served  its  purpose  and  was  never  regretted. 

When  in  July,  1906,  the  Roosevelt  was  smashed 
against  the  unyielding  ice-foot  at  Cape  Union, 
tossed  about  like  an  egg-shell,  and  treated  gener- 
ally as  if  she  were  of  no  account,  a  particularly 
vicious  corner  of  an  old  floe  struck  her  astern, 
broke  one  propeller-blade  square  off,  tore  off  the 
ponderous  white-oak  skeg,  or  after  stern-post, 
and,  catching  under  propeller  and  projecting  end 
of  shaft,  lifted  the  whole  after  part  of  the  ship 
as  a  man  would  lift  a  wheel-barrow,  until  her 
heel  was  out  of  water,  and  held  her  in  this  way 
for  several  hours  until  the  tide  changed.  Had 
propeller  and  shaft  been  of  usual  proportions, 
neither  would  ever  have  made  another  revolution. 
As  it  was,  my  twelve-inch  shaft  was  not  even 
thrown  out  of  line,  and  barring  the  broken  pro- 
peller-blade, the  machinery  suffered  no  damage. 

Another  device  which  added  to  the  effectiveness 


26  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

of  the  Roosevelt  is  the  arrangement  for  raising 
and  lowering  the  rudder  while  at  sea,  or  lifting  it 
when  under  pressure  in  the  ice.  A  large  open 
well  was  provided,  reaching  through  to  the  main- 
deck.  This  was  large  enough  to  permit  the  mas- 
sive rudder  to  be  drawn  up  and  hoisted  on  the 
deck  for  repairs,  or  into  the  overhang  of  the  stern, 
out  of  the  way  of  the  ice.  Instead  of  having  to 
send  a  diver  down  to  unfasten  the  gudgeons,  these 
worked  in  an  upright  groove  arranged  in  the  after 
end  of  the  stern-post,  something  like  a  window- 
sash.  Heavy  bolts  attached  the  pintles  to  the 
rudder-post,  and  in  unshipping  the  rudder,  the 
gudgeons  came  up  with  the  rudder  itself,  leaving 
the  raking  steel-clad  stern-post  as  smooth  and 
clean  as  the  stem,  with  nothing  for  the  ice  to  get 
a  grip  upon. 

The  problem  of  protecting  the  propeller-blades 
and  keeping  ice  away  from  them,  was  solved 
partly  by  the  full  counter  and  overhanging  stern 
of  the  Roosevelt,  and  partly  by  the  design  of  the 
propeller.  The  blades  of  the  propeller,  though 
short,  were  large  in  sectional  area,  and  particularly 
strong  and  massive.  Their  extremities  were  so 
shaped  as  to  make  it  difficult  for  a  cake  of  ice  to 
get  between  them,  and  the  blades  were  so  arranged 
that  either  two  or  four  of  them  could  be  used. 

Powerful  deck  appliances  were  the  windlass, 
steam-capstans  forward  and  aft,  and  steamwinch, 
which  enabled  the   ship   to  float  herself   should 


BUILDING  A  POLAR  SHIP  27 

she  get  aground,  or  to  warp  herself  out  of  a  dan- 
gerous spot. 

The  special  features  of  the  Roosevelt's  model 
are  a  smooth  and  rounded  form  not  readily 
gripped  by  the  ice;  midships  transverse  section 
that  is  a  semi-circle ;  a  sharply  raking  heavily  steel 
clad  stem  and  stern  post  giving  large  deck  room, 
sufficient  water  line  displacement  and  a  short  keel 
which  makes  the  ship  quick  and  handy  in  turning; 
an  overhanging  stern  to  assist  in  protecting  rud- 
der and  propeller  from  the  ice. 

Her  peculiarities  of  construction  include  un- 
usually massive  and  close  arrangement  of  beams 
and  bracing  to  withstand  pressure  on  the  sides; 
filling  the  bow  in  almost  solid  with  iron  and  tim- 
bers, where  it  gets  the  brunt  of  blows ;  strong  and 
unusual  reinforcement  of  the  rudder-post;  the  in- 
troduction of  a  lifting  rudder;  heavy  steel  plates 
for  stem  and  bow;  a  course  of  greenhart  ice- 
sheathing  to  protect  the  outer  planking. 

Her  peculiarities  of  rig  are  pole-masts;  three- 
masted  schooner  rig,  with  big  balloon  staysails; 
and  a  very  short  bowsprit,  which,  when  navigat- 
ing through  ice  of  some  height,  can  be  run  in- 
board. 

Her  sail-plan  is  an  American  three-masted 
schooner  rig,  of  light  weight  (a  decided  advantage 
when  every  pound  saved  in  weight  in  rigging  or 
fittings  means  an  extra  pound  of  coal  on  board), 
large  enough  to  assist  the  engines  considerably  in 


28  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

favorable  weather,  or  to  get  the  ship  home  in  case 
of  her  supply  of  coal  becoming  depleted. 

The  whole  scheme  on  which  the  Roosevelt  was 
built  was  to  place  all  her  strength,  power,  weight, 
carrying  capacity  below  the  main-deck;  to  make 
everything  above  deck,  such  as  bulwarks,  spars, 
sails,  rigging,  whale-boats,  with  their  equipment, 
and  deck-houses,  as  light  as  possible,  in  order  to 
allow  more  coal  to  be  stowed  on  board,  and  to 
waste  no  money  on  frills  or  fittings,  but  to  use 
every  dollar  in  the  interests  of  strength,  power, 
and  effectiveness. 

Constructed  of  southern  oak  and  yellow  pine, 
New  England  white  pine  and  Oregon  pine,  by  New 
England  labor,  the  Roosevelt  as  a  thoroughly 
American  ship  combines  the  qualities  of  shape 
which  as  in  the  Fram  insure  her  rising  under 
heavy  ice  pressure,  with  the  splendid  ramming 
qualities  of  the  best  of  the  Scotch  whalers.  These 
permit  the  ship  to  be  fearlessly  driven  into  the 
ice  with  all  the  force  of  her  powerful  engines. 

The  Roosevelt  embodies  all  that  a  most  careful 
study  of  previous  polar  ships  and  my  own  years  of 
personal  experience  could  suggest. 

With  the  sturcliness  of  a  battleship  and  the 
shapely  lines  of  a  Maine  built  schooner,  I  regard 
her  the  fittest  icefighter  afloat. 

As  I  write  these  lines,  I  see  her  slowly  but 
surely  forcing  a  way  through  the  crowding  ice.  I 
see  the  black  hull  hove  out  bodily  onto  the  sur- 


BUILDING  A  POLAR  SHIP  31 

face  of  the  ice  by  a  cataclysm  of  the  great  floes.  I 
see  her  squeezed  as  by  a  giant's  hand  against  a 
rocky  shore  till  every  rib  and  timber  is  vocal  with 
the  strain. 

And  I  see  her  out  in  the  North  Atlantic  lying  to 
for  days  through  a  wild  autumn  northeaster,  rud- 
derless, with  damaged  propeller,  and  shattered 
stern  post,  all  pumps  going,  a  scrap  of  double 
reefed  foresail  keeping  her  up  to  the  wind,  riding 
the  huge  waves  like  a  seagull  till  they  are  tired 
out. 

After  my  return  from  the  north  pole  in  1909, 
the  Roosevelt  was  purchased  from  the  Peary 
Arctic  Club,  which  had  built  her  for  me,  by  John 
Arbuckle,  the  great  tea,  coffee,  and  sugar  merchant 
of  Brooklyn. 

Mr.  Arbuckle 's  personal  hobby  was  wrecking. 
He  desired  the  Roosevelt  as  a  powerful  ocean- 
going wrecking-tug.  He  made  some  changes  in 
her  rigging,  removing  the  mainmast  completely, 
and  replacing  the  foremast  with  a  powerful  boom 
derrick.  Air-compressors  and  additional  power- 
ful winches  were  installed  upon  her  deck.  Thus 
equipped,  the  Roosevelt  assisted  in  the  attempts 
to  save  the  Yankee,  and  salvaged  other  wrecks 
along  the  coast  as  far  south  as  Florida. 

Mr.  Arbuckle 's  death  put  a  stop  to  this  work, 
and  for  a  year  or  two  the  Roosevelt  and  other 
craft  of  his  wrecking  fleet  lay  in  a  Brooklyn  slip 
almost  under  the  east  end  of  the  Brooklyn  Bridge, 


32  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

where  thousands  of  passers-by  could  look  almost 
directly  down  into  her  big,  elliptical  smoke-stack. 
Then  the  Roosevelt  was  purchased  by  the  Bu- 
reau of  Fisheries  of  the  Department  of  Commerce 
for  an  Alaskan  patrol-boat.  The  bureau  changed 
the  Roosevelt  to  an  oil-burner,  restored  her  fore- 
mast, and  made  some  minor  changes  in  her  ac- 
commodations for  officers  and  men. 

For  a  time  she  made  her  headquarters  at  Nor- 
folk, Virginia,  whence  she  went  out  on  vari- 
ous fisheries  trips.  In  the  spring  of  1917  she 
went  through  the  Panama  Canal,  and  proceeded 
to  Seattle,  Washington,  to  fit  out  for  her  work  of 
patrolling  the  Alaskan  coast,  carrying  supplies  to 
the  various  stations  and  settlements,  inspecting 
the  canneries  and  seal-rookeries,  and  giving  as- 
sistance, when  necessary,  to  ships  along  that 
coast.  For  this  work  the  Roosevelt  is  specially 
adapted,  and  will  be  able  to  perform  her  duties  in 
all  weathers  and  at  all  seasons  of  the  year. 

While  waiting  at  Seattle,  the  Roosevelt  took 
part  in  an  important  local  event,  carrying  the 
official  party  and  leading  the  naval  pageant  on  the 
occasion  of  the  opening  of  the  Lake  Washington 
ship  canal  connecting  the  lake  with  Puget  Sound, 
and  giving  Seattle  a  double  water  front. 

I  was  on  board  the  Roosevelt  for  an  hour  late 
in  May,  and  as  I  stood  again  on  the  bridge  the 
succession  of  scenes  that  passed  before  me  was 
as  rapid  as  the  changing  pictures  of  a  movie. 


BUILDING  A  POLAR  SHIP  33 

I  was  much  pleased  to  have  the  Government  take 
over  the  Roosevelt.  Naturally  my  feeling  for  the 
ship  was  strong;  yet  I  personally  had  neither  the 
means  to  purchase  her  nor  to  maintain  her  after 
purchase.  Nor  did  I  feel  like  suggesting  to  the 
friends  who  had  splendidly  furnished  the  money 
for  the  discovery  of  the  pole  that  the  ship  be  pur- 
chased and  taken  care  of. 

From  time  to  time  I  receive  letters  suggesting 
some  action — public  subscription  or  otherwise — 
for  the  maintenance  and  preservation  of  the 
Roosevelt  as  a  national  object  of  interest.  These 
letters  have  referred  to  the  government  owner- 
ship by  Italy  of  Abruzzi's  Stella  Polare,  by  Nor- 
way of  Nansen's  Fram,  and  by  England  of  Nel- 
son's Victory;  but  none  of  these  suggestions  ever 
materialized. 

Some  day  it  is  my  hope  to  build  a  Roosevelt  II 
to  carry  the  Stars  and  Stripes  around  and  into  the 
heart  of  the  antarctic  regions.  Drawings  for  such 
a  ship,  both  in  general  and  in  detail,  based  on  my 
experience  in  designing,  building,  and  using  the 
Roosevelt,  were  one  of  my  amusements  and  occu- 
pations during  the  two  long  winter  nights  which 
the  ship  spent  at  Cape  Sheridan.  These  plans 
contain  a  number  of  new  ideas  and  improvements 
over  the  Roosevelt.  The  actual  sail-plan,  cross- 
section  and  longitudinal  models  to  the  scale  of  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  to  the  foot,  are  now  stored  on 
Eagle  Island. 


34>  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

On  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  with  the  new  im- 
petus that  has  been  given  to  wooden  ship-building, 
perhaps  it  may  be  possible  to  realize  these  ideas, 
and  send  a  ship  south  that  will  place  the  name  of 
the  United  States  high  in  the  record  of  antarc- 
tic work.  Such  a  ship,  under  command  of  Bart- 
lett,  and  utilizing  the  experience  gained  and  the 
methods  developed  in  twenty-three  years  of  north 
polar  work,  could  probably  do  in  a  given  time 
twice  as  much  work  as  any  existing  ship. 

There  are  three  pieces  of  antarctic  work  of 
major  importance  and  of  great  attractiveness  that 
lie  ready  to  the  hand  of  the  United  States  when- 
ever we  are  ready  to  undertake  them. 

One  is  the  complete  delimitation  of  the  great 
Weddell  Sea  indentation  in  the  antarctic  continent 
lying  southeast  of  Cape  Horn.  Another  is  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  station  at  the  south  pole  for  a 
year  of  continuous,  systematic  scientific  observa- 
tions. A  third  is  the  exploration,  survey,  and 
study  through  several  seasons  of  the  entire  pe- 
riphery of  the  antarctic  continent. 

The  first  of  these,  the  exploration  of  Weddell 
Sea,  which  thus  far  has  baffled  the  efforts  of  every 
expedition,  Scotch,  German,  French,  Swedish,  and 
British,  is,  from  its  location  in  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere, in  our  sphere  of  influence,  and  would  also 
be  likely  to  give  the  maximum  amount  of  general 
results  in  the  shortest  time  and  at  the  least  ex- 
pense. 


HOW  OF   THE      ROOSEVELT      IX    ICE 
[mpressive   In    its   massive  sturdiness  and   evidenl    power 


LAUNCHING  THE     ROOSEVELT 
Bucksport,  Maine,  March  ^-"..  L905.     Very  appropriate  thai   the  baptism 
of   the  ship  should   \><-  in    Ice-filled   water 


BUILDING  A  TOLAR  SHIP  37 

The  second,  an  observation  station  at  the  pole, 
might  be  an  adjunct  of  the  first,  an  overland  party 
from  the  head  of  Weddell  Sea  establishing  and 
provisioning  the  station.  The  traverse  of  such  a 
party  from  the  head  of  Weddell  Sea  to  the  south 
pole  would,  with  the  journeys  of  Amundsen, 
Scott,  and  Shackleton  from  McMurdo  Sound  on 
the  opposite  side,  give  a  complete  cross  section 
of  the  antarctic  continent. 

The  natural  conditions  in  the  antarctic  region, 
that  is,  a  continuous  permanent  surface  from  year 
to  year,  as  compared  with  the  north  polar  ocean, 
which  may  become  intersected  with  lanes  of  open 
water  at  any  time  as  the  result  of  a  storm — makes 
it  possible  for  a  party  equipped  like  my  north- 
pole  party,  to  establish  and  maintain  a  regular 
route  and  system  of  transporting  supplies  right 
through  the  antarctic  night.  Or  a  few  aeroplanes, 
working  from  a  base  at  the  head  of  Weddell  Sea, 
could  in  a  few  weeks  of  the  antarctic  summer  pro- 
vision such  a  station  for  a  year,  as  British  planes 
in  the  Mesopotamia  campaign  carried  supplies  to 
Kut-el-amara. 

Such  a  station,  by  making  simultaneous  obser- 
vations with  other  existing  stations,  ought  to  add 
greatly  to  our  meteorological  and  magnetic  knowl- 
edge. If  at  the  same  time  a  similar  station  at 
Cape  Columbia,  the  most  northerly  easily  access- 
ible point  of  land  in  the  arctic  regions,  should  be 
established,  and  take  synchronous  observations, 


38  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

the  value  of  all  would  be  still  further  increased. 

The  Cape  Columbia  station  like  the  one  at  the 
south  pole  could  be  established  and  provisioned 
by  aeroplanes  in  a  few  weeks  from  Whale  Sound 
less  than  400  miles  distant  and  easily  accessible 
every  summer.  With  two  such  stations  at  the  ex- 
tremities of  the  globe  observing  simultaneously 
with  selected  stations  in  the  inhabited  portions  of 
the  world,  there  would  certainly  result  a  broader 
knowledge  of  meteorological,  magnetic,  and  other 
natural  conditions.  The  proposition  has  the  ap- 
proval of  distinguished  scientists,  and  will  un- 
doubtedly be  eventually  put  in  execution. 

The  third  proposition,  a  complete  systematic 
study  of  the  entire  periphery  of  the  antarctic 
continent  and  its  adjacent  waters  by  a  party  of 
scientific  experts  in  a  special  ship  during  a  suc- 
cession of  seasons,  would  appeal  most  strongly  to 
the  scientists  and  museums  of  the  country. 

It  would  be  an  American  Challenger  expedition, 
with  all  the  improvements  and  widened  horizon 
of  investigation  that  forty-four  years  of  scien- 
tific progress  represent.  Such  an  expedition  with 
good  fortune  could  complete  the  circuit  of  the  Ant- 
arctic continent  in  three  or  four  seasons,  coming 
north  to  pass  each  winter  at  some  convenient  port 
as  Punta  Arenas  in  the  Straits  of  Magellan ;  Wel- 
lington, N.  Z. ;  Hobart,  Tasmania  and  Cape  Town. 

Each  year  the  observations  and  collections  could 


BUILDING  A  POLAR  SHIP  39 

be  sent  home,  and  any  necessary  changes  be  made 
in  the  personnel. 

The  materialization  of  this  program  will  give 
our  museums  a  large  amount  of  valuable  material 
from  a  region  which  at  present  is  most  meagerly 
represented  in  their  collections,  and  will  furnish 
our  scientists  with  material  and  observations  to 
keep  them  occupied  for  years. 

The  financing  of  the  work  could  be  met  by  a 
group  of  American  museums.  Or  it  presents  an 
opportunity  for  some  man  of  means  to  place  him- 
self permanently  in  the  scientific  record  of  the 
nation  by  furnishing  the  funds  for  its  realization. 


CHAPTER  II 

SELECTING   MEN 

IN  my  polar  parties  the  matter  of  personnel  has 
been  different  from  that  of  other  expeditions 
because  of  my  extensive  utilization  of  the  Eski- 
mos. From  the  beginning  of  my  interest  in  polar 
matters  my  conception  of  an  ideal  polar  party  was 
one  in  which  the  rank  and  file  sliould  be  composed 
of  Eskimos,  with  one  or  more  white  men  in  com- 
mand. 

But  I  was  not  able  to  realize  this  ideal  at  the 
start  of  my  polar  work,  and  in  my  first  expedition 
the  entire  work  was  done  by  the  six  members  of 
my  party.  In  my  second  expedition  the  Eski- 
mos assisted  for  a  short  distance  on  the  ice-cap. 
In  the  work  and  journeys  of  my  long  expedition  of 
1898-1902  (four  years,  three  months,  and  seven- 
teen days),  my  plans  crystallized  into  actual  shape, 
and  all  parties  were  made  up  of  Eskimos  and  a 
white  man  or  two,  sometimes  one  member  of  my 
party  commanding  fifteen  or  sixteen  Eskimos.  In 
my  last  two  expeditions  of  1905-06  and  1908-09 
the  system  was  still  further  perfected. 

In  these  last  two  expeditions  another  phase  en- 
tered.   With  the  close  of  my  1898-1902  expedi- 

40 


I  curtesy  o!  the  American  Museum  oi  Natural  History 

C  U'TAIN  ROBERT  BARTLETT 


SELECTING  MEN  43 

tion  I  had  worked  out  the  ultimate  possibilities  of 
sledging  from  a  base  south  of  the  79th  parallel, 
and  recognized  that  the  pole  could  not  be  reached 
from  such  a  base.  The  preliminary  journey  from 
the  base  to  the  most  northern  land  made  too  se- 
rious a  drain  upon  the  energies  of  dogs  and  men 
to  enable  them  to  negotiate  the  final  and  most 
difficult  part  of  the  journey  over  the  surface  of 
the  polar  ocean.  The  only  answer  to  the  problem 
was  a  ship  which  would  put  me  within  striking 
distance  of  the  pole. 

The  result  was  the  Roosevelt,  and  in  my  last 
two  expeditions  the  presence  of  a  ship  added  to 
the  personnel  of  my  expedition  the  new  element  of 
ship's  officers  and  crew.  Thus  in  the  final  evolu- 
tion of  my  work  my  parties  were  made  up  of  three 
elements:  myself  and  my  assistants  for  the  ex- 
ploration sledge-work ;  the  ship 's  officers  and  crew ; 
and  the  Eskimos,  these  last  being  more  numerous 
than  both  the  others  combined. 

The  Eskimo  element  is  taken  up  more  fully  in 
another  place,  and  I  shall  not  go  into  it  here.  The 
selection  of  the  ship's  personnel  threw  no  burden 
of  time  or  attention  on  my  shoulders,  as,  with  the 
exception  of  the  chief  engineer  and  his  assistant, 
whom  I  myself  selected,  and  who  were  Americans, 
I  turned  this  matter  over  to  Bartlett,  himself  a 
Newfoundlander,  and  held  him  responsible  for  a 
picked  crew  of  these  ideal,  hardy  ice-navigators. 

In  the  general  scheme  of  work  it  was  not  ex- 


44  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

pected  that  any  of  this  ship  personnel  should  take 
part  in  the  sledging  expeditions.  Bartlett's 
eagerness  to  have  a  share  in  the  sledge  work,  how- 
ever, together  with  his  personal  qualifications, 
made  him  an  invaluable  addition  to  my  field 
parties,  and  two  or  three  of  the  men  before  the 
mast  volunteered  for,  and  did  good,  preliminary 
depot  and  hunting  work. 

My  own  particular  work  of  selecting  personnel 
was  confined,  therefore,  to  the  limited  number  of 
my  own  assistants,  and  in  the  last  expedition  three 
of  these,  Henson,  Percy,  Marvin  (I  mention  them 
in  the  order  of  length  of  service),  were  tried  and 
faithful  men  from  previous  expeditions. 

The  day  of  large  parties  in  successful  polar 
work  has  passed.  Effective  results  in  these  re- 
gions can,  and  in  the  future  will  be,  obtained  by 
very  small  parties.  The  records  of  some  of  the 
earlier  expeditions  show  the  fallacy  of  the  popu- 
lar idea  that  there  is  safety  in  numbers. 

Franklin's  party  of  138  men,  the  largest  in  the 
history  of  polar  exploration,  equipped  with  every- 
thing that  the  ample  resources  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment could  provide  in  that  day,  met  with  dis- 
aster, not  a  single  member  surviving  to  tell  the 
fate  which  overtook  them.  Too  large  a  party 
was,  in  my  opinion,  the  direct  cause  of  the  utter 
loss  of  this  expedition,  and  many  of  the  tragedies 
which  have  preceded  and  followed  it  would  not 
have  occurred  had  the  parties  been  small  ones. 


SELECTING  MEN  45 

The  whole  situation  in  polar  regions  is  against 
large  parties.  Starvation  is  inevitable  when,  as 
a  result  of  the  loss  of  ship  or  supplies,  a  large 
number  of  men  find  themselves  dependent  upon 
the  resources  of  the  country  even  for  a  short  time, 
whereas  a  small  company  would  have  an  abun- 
dant food-supply.  On  more  than  one  occasion,  on 
long  sledge  journeys  with  one  or  two  companions, 
a  single  hare  has  made  a  hearty  meal  for  us, 
which,  followed  by  a  good  sleep,  made  it  possible 
for  us  to  travel  some  days  more  without  meat. 
Had  there  been  five  or  six  of  us,  the  portion  of 
each  would  only  have  aggravated  our  hunger,  and 
the  strength  and  endurance  of  none  would  have 
been  materially  increased. 

An  illustration  of  this  is  an  incident  in  the  land 
beyond  the  ice-cap  on  my  second  trip  across 
northern  Greenland.  Five  hundred  miles  sepa- 
rated me  and  my  companions  from  any  other  hu- 
man beings.     Then  I  wrote : 

I  saw  a  fresh  hare-track,  and  a  few  hundred  yards  beyond 
came  upon  the  hare  itself,  squatting  among1  the  rocks  a  few 
paces  distant.  With  the  sight  of  the  beautiful,  spotless  little 
animal,  the  feeling  of  emptiness  in  the  region  of  my  stomach 
increased.  I  called  to  Matt,  who  was  some  little  distance  back, 
to  stop  the  dogs  and  come  up  with  his  rifle.  He  was  so  af- 
fected by  the  prospect  of  a  good  supper  that,  though  usually 
a  good  shot,  his  first  and  second  bullets  missed  the  mark;  but 
at  the  third  the  white  object  collapsed  into  a  shapeless  mass, 
and  on  the  instant  gaunt  hunger  leaped  upon  us  like  a  starving 
wolf  upon  its  prey.  A  little  pond,  surrounded  by  high  banks 
a  short  distance  away,  offered  the  advantage  of  ice  for  cooking 


46  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

purposes,  and  here  we  camped,  lit  our  lamp,  and  cooked  and 
ate  the  entire  hare.  It  was  the  first  full  meal  we  had  had  since 
the  Eskimos  left  us  thirty-five  days  ago— the  first  meal  pos- 
sessing proper  substance  and  staying  quality  to  fit  a  man  for  a 
heavy  day's  work. 

While  we  were  enjoying  our  feast,  it  began  snowing,  and  at 
its  conclusion  we  lay  down  as  we  were,  upon  the  snow-covered 
shore  of  the  little  pond,  without  tent  or  sleeping-bag  or  any- 
thing except  the  clothes  we  wore,  and,  with  the  snowflakes 
falling  thickly  upon  us,  slept. 

Demoralization  is  also  much  more  easily  caused 
by  a  disloyal  or  cowardly  member  in  a  large  party 
than  in  a  small  one.  The  success  of  any  expedi- 
tion depends  upon  the  magnetism  and  force  of  its 
leader.  His  example  is  contagious,  his  courage, 
activity,  and  cheerfulness  being  reflected  in  each 
person  of  his  party  up  to  a  certain  mark. 

But  the  infusion  of  fresh  courage  into  a  mem- 
ber whose  mental  and  physical  strength  has  been 
impaired  by  cold,  hunger,  or  discouragement  is  a 
drain  upon  the  leader's  nerve  force.  The  larger 
the  party,  the  more  difficult  it  becomes  to  fill  it 
with  courage  and  hopefulness  when  confronted  by 
serious  disappointment  or  disaster,  or  to  put  down 
insubordination.  The  impetus  of  a  sledge  party 
in  particular  centers  in  the  physical  condition  of 
its  leader,  and  my  various  sledge-journeys  have 
shown  me  how  vital  it  is  that  things  that  drain 
his  energies  should  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

Next  after  the  leader  and  a  suitable  ship,  is  an 
ice  master,  and  an  ice  navigator  must  be  born  to 
the  art. 


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SELECTING  MEN  49 

He  must  possess  good  judgment,  nerve,  endur- 
ance, quick  decision,  and  an  uncanny  prevision  as 
to  what  the  ice  is  going  to  do  next. 

Bartlett  is  the  type  I  have  in  mind,  accustomed 
to  the  ice  and  to  ships  from  his  early  teens,  wide 
experience  in  different  portions  of  the  globe, 
great  endurance,  abundant  nerve,  good  judgment, 
and  with  the  intensive  training  and  experience  of 
two  voyages  with  me  in  what  is  probably  the 
worst  ice-navigation  of  the  north  polar  regions. 

To  this  has  now  been  added  his  unusual  expe- 
rience during  his  voyage  in  the  Karluk  in  Bering 
Sea. 

Much  has  been  accomplished  by  small  parties  in 
polar  work.  Schwatka  made  his  great  sledge- 
journey  with  four  white  men  and  an  Eskimo. 
Captain  Holm  made  his  eastern  Greenland  trip 
with  four  men;  Payer's  party  of  seven  in  Franz- 
Josef  Land  was  found  impracticable,  and  was  re- 
duced to  three.  Striking  examples  of  what  one 
determined  man  can  accomplish  are  found  in  the 
records  of  Hall's  early  explorations  and  Graah's 
sledge-trip  along  the  eastern  coast  of  Greenland. 
Nansen's  most  striking  work  was  done  with  a 
party  of  two.  Captain  Cagni's  main  party  to  the 
then  highest  north,  86°  34',  numbered  four. 
Amundsen  reached  the  south  pole  with  a  party  of 
five.  Scott's  south  pole  party  numbered  five. 
Stefansson  did  valuable  work  through  several 
years  with  one  companion.    My  own  work  has 


50  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

been  done  with  from  two  to  six  in  the  party,  the 
latter  being  the  number  in  my  north  pole  party. 

I  have  always  limited  my  parties  to  the  number 
absolutely  necessary  for  the  work  I  had  laid  out, 
believing  that  every  addition  means  an  element  of 
danger  and  failure.  My  reconnaissance  of  the 
Greenland  inland  ice  in  1886,  resulting  in  the  pen- 
etration of  the  ice-cap  to  a  greater  distance  than 
ever  before  by  a  white  man,  and  the  attainment 
of  the  greatest  elevation  on  the  ice-cap,  was  made 
with  only  one  companion. 

My  Greenland  expedition  in  1891-92,  the  record 
of  which  includes  the  determination  of  the  insu- 
larity of  Greenland,  a  survey  of  Inglcfield  Gulf 
and  Whale  and  Murchison  sounds,  the  first  accu- 
rate and  complete  record  of  the  arctic  Highland- 
ers, was  composed  of  seven  members.  And  the 
1200-mile  sledge-trip  across  the  Greenland  inland 
ice-cap  was  accomplished  by  me  and  one  com- 
panion. 

The  work  of  my  expedition  of  1893-95,  covering 
a  period  of  twenty-five  months,  included  a  second 
sledge- journey  of  1200  miles  across  the  ice-cap, 
the  discovery  of  the  Cape  York  meteorites,  the 
completion  of  the  survey  of  the  region  about 
Whale  Sound,  and  the  completion  of  the  study  of 
the  natives.  There  were  fourteen  members  in 
this  party,  eleven  of  them  returning  in  August, 
1894,  leaving  three  of  us  to  carry  on  the  work  for 
the  last  year.     Summer  trips  were  made  in  1896 


SELECTING  MEN  51 

and  1897  to  secure  the  last  and  largest  of  the 
meteorites.  There  were  five  men  in  the  first 
party,  seven  in  the  last. 

Twenty-one  white  men,  including  the  crew  and 
firemen  of  the  Roosevelt,  and  forty  Eskimos  made 
up  the  personnel  of  my  1905-06  expedition,  which 
resulted  in  the  attainment  of  " farthest  north." 
The  personnel  of  my  last  and  successful  attempt 
to  reach  the  pole  (1908-09)  included  twenty-two 
white  men  and  forty-nine  Eskimos. 

As  to  the  quality  of  the  personnel  of  a  polar 
expedition,  my  experience  has  proved  over  and 
over  again  the  accuracy  of  my  theory  that  it 
should  be  made  up  wholly  of  young  men,  of  first- 
class  physique,  perfect  health,  education,  and  at- 
tainment. Such  men,  interested  in  their  work  and 
the  success  of  the  expedition,  with  resources 
within  themselves  and  plans  for  the  future,  are 
able  to  resist  in  a  large  measure  the  depressing 
effects  of  the  long  polar  night,  and  in  field-work 
their  enthusiasm  more  than  makes  up  for  lack  of 
experience  or  toughened  endurance. 

To  nine  out  of  ten  the  word  polar  is  synony- 
mous with  cold.  To  one  who  has  spent  a  year 
within  the  arctic  or  antarctic  it  is  more  likely  to  be 
synonymous  with  darkness.  Any  healthy  man 
properly  fed  and  clothed  can  pass  the  year  in  these 
regions  with  little  discomfort  so  far  as  the  cold 
is  concerned.  But  when  it  comes  to  almost  four 
months  of  polar  night,  it  is  different.    A  man  of 


52  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

the  most  sanguine  temperament  cannot  avoid  en- 
tirely its  effects,  and  there  are  those  of  nervous 
temperament  whom  a  night  in  the  arctic  would 
drive  insane.  Not  that  it  is  so  extremely  dark, 
for  the  three  or  four  winter  moons  give  a  bril- 
liant light,  and  at  other  times  the  darkness  is  not 
greater  than  at  home  on  starlit  nights  in  the 
winter.  It  is  only  during  heavy  storms  that  the 
darkness  becomes  intense  and  tangible.  It  is 
the  absence  of  the  actinic  or  the  physiological  ef- 
fects of  the  sun's  rays  and  the  contraction  of  the 
physical  horizon  by  the  darkness  which  render  a 
polar  night  so  trying.  As  far  as  I  was  able  I  have 
selected  blondes  for  the  personnel  of  all  my  ex- 
peditions. 

Men  for  the  field-parties  should  be  wiry,  and 
their  weight  should  be  within  the  limits  of  not 
less  than  two  pounds,  nor  more  than  two  and  a 
half  pounds  per  inch  of  height.  This  means  for 
a  six-foot  man  a  minimum  of  144  pounds,  a  maxi- 
mum of  180  pounds,  and  a  mean  of  162  pounds. 

When  I  returned  from  the  north  pole  sledge- 
trip,  which  was  a  trip  of  arduous  and  protracted 
exertion,  but  not  a  journey  on  half -rations,  as  had 
been  the  case  on  some  of  my  earlier  trips,  my  own 
weight,  stripped  to  the  buff,  was  160  pounds, 
which,  by  the  way,  was  the  same  weight  to  which 
I  trained  for  my  junior-class  crew  in  college  at 
the  age  of  twenty. 

Small,  wiry  men  have  a  great  advantage  over 


SELECTING  MEN  55 

large  ones  in  polar  work.  The  latter  require 
more  material  for  their  clothing,  and  usually  eat 
more  than  the  former.  Large  men  take  up  more 
space  than  small  ones,  necessitating  the  building 
of  larger  snow  igloos  when  on  the  march,  or  the 
carrying  of  larger  tents  than  would  be  needed  for 
a  party  made  up  of  small  men.  Every  pound  in 
weight  beyond  the  maximum  requirement  tends  to 
lessen  a  man's  agility;  in  fact,  renders  him  clumsy 
and  more  apt  to  break  his  equipment.  For  in- 
stance, if  a  large  man  on  snow-shoes  stumbles,  a 
sudden  lunge  to  save  himself  more  often  than  not 
results  in  a  broken  snow-shoe.  The  decided  dis- 
advantage wThich  a  large  man  is  under  in  crossing 
a  lead  or  new  ice  is  apparent.  This  was  brought 
to  mind  with  striking  f orcefulness  in  crossing  the 
" Great  Lead"  on  our  return  from  ''farthest 
north"  in  1906,  when  my  little  party  came  the 
nearest  we  have  ever  come  to  death.  Two  miles 
of  young  ice,  which  would  not  for  an  instant  have 
supported  us  without  snow-shoes,  had  to  be 
crossed,  the  party  spreading  out  in  widely  ex- 
tended skirmish-line,  with  fifty  or  sixty  feet  be- 
tween each  man,  each  one  of  us  constantly  and 
smoothly  gliding  one  shoe  ahead  of  the  other  with 
the  greatest  care  and  evenness  of  pressure,  the 
undulations  going  out  in  every  direction  through 
the  thin  ice  as  we  advanced. 

I  was  the  heaviest  one  in  the  party, — 160  pounds 
net, — and  fortunately  I  had  six-foot  snow-shoes. 


56  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

Yet  for  a  considerable  part  of  the  distance  I 
doubted  if  I  should  ever  reach  the  firm  ice.  The 
chief  engineer  of  the  Roosevelt  was  a  heavy  man, 
weighing  235  pounds  or  more,  and  as  we  stooped 
to  untie  our  snow-shoes  on  firmer  ice,  one  of  my 
Eskimos,  Ahngmalokto,  turned  to  me  with  the  re- 
mark that  if  the  chief  had  been  with  us,  he  never 
would  have  reached  firm  ice.  And  he  was  quite 
right. 

Some  Arctic  travelers  advise  against  having 
men  who  have  had  previous  polar  experience,  as 
likely  to  make  them  opinionated  and  insubordi- 
nate. 

There  is  much  in  this,  and  it  is  a  precept  well  to 
be  followed  particularly  if  the  leader  is  new  at  the 
work.  Few  men,  having  had  experience  in  a  cer- 
tain direction  and  associated  in  a  subordinate 
position  with  an  inexperienced  leader,  are  big 
enough  to  be  loyal  to  their  commander. 

The  usual  result  is  constant  slurring  criticism 
which  is  sure  to  have  its  effect  upon  other  mem- 
bers of  the  expedition,  and  opposition  either  di- 
rect and  active  or  sullen  and  passive. 

The  last  man  of  all  is  the  one  who  is  always 
wondering  whether  he  will  ever  get  back  home 
or  not,  and  is  constantly  congratulating  himself 
as  a  hero  because  he  is  in  the  terrible  polar  re- 
gions and  still  alive. 

I  know  of  no  better  test  of  character  than  a  sea- 
son spent  in  the  polar  regions.    In  these  regions 


SELECTING  MEN  57 

men  get  to  know  one  another  better  in  a  few 
months  than  they  would  in  a  lifetime  at  home. 
There  is  something  about  the  life  which  very 
quickly  shows  the  true  caliber  of  a  man.  If  he  is  a 
cur,  or  has  a  yellow  streak  it  is  sure  to  come  out. 
In  making  up  my  last  part}'  I  was  exceptionally 
fortunate,  for  I  had  the  membership  of  the  preced- 
ing expedition  to  select  from.  Every  one  was 
glad  to  make  the  success  of  the  expedition  first  and 
personal  feelings  and  ambitions  secondary.  My 
party  was  efficient  and  congenial,  and  never  had  I 
spent  a  winter  in  the  arctic  so  free  from  friction 
and  petty  annoyances. 


CHAPTER  III 

SUPPLIES   AND   EQUIPMENT 

THE  detail  of  equipping  a  polar  expedition  is 
like  the  detail  of  equipping  an  army  for 
foreign  service,  with,  however,  this  difference. 
After  the  expedition  has  cast  loose  from  civiliza- 
tion there  is  no  chance  to  rectify  mistakes  or 
omissions.  No  rush  wires  or  cables  can  be  sent 
back  to  ship  this  or  that  article  by  next  train 
or  steamer.  The  little  ship  which  bears  the  hopes 
of  a  polar  expedition  must  contain  in  its'  re- 
stricted space  everything  to  supply  all  the  needs 
of  its  people  for  two  or  three  years  in  a  region 
where  nothing  can  be  obtained  but  meat,  and  even 
that  only  by  those  who  possess  the  "know  how.,, 
Even  when  the  needs  are  reduced  to  almost 
primeval  simplicity,  the  multiplicity  of  essential 
things  is  great. 

As  an  illustration  of  how  an  article,  though  so 
common  that,  like  breathing,  we  are  unaware  of 
it,  may  be  overlooked,  it  is  said  that  a  great  polar 
expedition  costing  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dol- 
lars,   and   fitted    out   under   the    supervision    of 

committees  of  scientists  and  polar  experts,  dis- 
ss 


SUPPLIES  AND  EQUIPMENT  59 

covered,  when  it  reached  its  winter  quarters,  that 
there  was  no  salt  on  board  except  that  in  the  salt 
pork  and  beef. 

Supplies  for  a  polar  expedition  comprise  pri- 
marily equipment  and  provisions.  The  latter 
subdivides  again  into  provisions  for  ship  and 
headquarters  and  provisions  for  sledge-work. 

The  former  are  essentially  normal,  comprising 
standard  commercial  supplies,  the  principal  thing 
being  to  have  the  best,  and  the  specialness  lies 
largely  in  the  packing.  The  latter  number  only 
four  items,  pemmican,  compressed  tea,  condensed 
milk,  hard  tack ;  but  they  are  special  in  every  de- 
tail of  make  and  packing,  with  the  exception  of 
the  condensed  milk. 

Here  are  a  few  of  the  items  and  figures  on  the 
list  of  supplies  for  one  of  my  last  expeditions, 
flour,  16,000  pounds;  coffee,  1000  pounds;  tea,  800 
pounds ;  sugar,  10,000  pounds ;  kerosene,  3500  gal- 
lons ;  bacon,  7000  pounds ;  biscuit,  10,000  pounds ; 
condensed  milk,  100  cases;  pemmican,  30,000 
pounds ;  dried  fish,  3000  pounds. 

To  illustrate  how  normal  was  our  bill  of  fare 
on  the  Roosevelt  in  winter  quarters,  here  is  our 
weekly  menu  for  the  winter  of  1908-09  (the  north 
pole  voyage) : 

Monday.  Breakfast:  cereal,  beans  and  brown 
bread,  butter,  coffee.  Dinner:  liver  and  bacon, 
macaroni  and  cheese,  bread  and  butter,  tea. 

Tuesday.     Breakfast:  oatmeal,  ham  and  eggs, 


60  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

bread  and  butter,  coffee.    Dinner:  corned  beef 
and  creamed  peas,  duff,  tea. 

Wednesday.  Breakfast:  choice  of  two  kinds 
of  cereal,  fish,  forward  (that  is,  for  the  sailors), 
sausage,  aft  (for  the  members  of  the  expedition), 
bread  and  butter,  coffee.  Dinner:  steak  and 
tomatoes,  bread  and  butter,  tea. 

Thursday.  Breakfast:  cereal,  ham  and  eggs, 
bread  and  butter,  coffee.  Dinner:  corned  beef 
and  peas,  duff,  tea. 

Friday.  Breakfast:  choice  of  cereal,  fish, 
Hamburger  on  starboard  (our  own)  table,  bread 
and  butter,  coffee.  Dinner :  pea  soup,  fish,  cran- 
berry pie,  bread  and  butter,  tea. 

Saturday.  Breakfast :  cereal,  meat  stew,  bread 
and  butter,  coffee.  Dinner:  steak  and  tomatoes, 
bread  and  butter,  tea. 

Sunday.  Breakfast:  cereal,  "brooze"  (New- 
foundland hard  biscuit  softened  and  boiled  with 
salt  codfish),  bread  and  butter,  coffee.  Dinner: 
salmon  trout,  fruit,  chocolate. 

In  addition  to  the  large  quantities  of  the  bed- 
rock staple  provisions,  there  is  a  long  list  of  odd 
and  often  amusing  supplies  that  would  never  be 
thought  of  except  by  those  who  had  already  had 
polar  experience.  Yet  for  the  mere  problem  of 
existence  in  those  regions,  to  the  experienced  one 
the  essentials  are  few,  rifle  and  ammunition, 
matches,  knife,  hatchet,  needles. 

In  my  work  another  special  class  of  supplies 


SUPPLIES  AND  EQUIPMENT  61 

came  in,  that  is,  articles  for  my  Eskimos;  tools, 
weapons,  implements,  etc.,  for  pay  and  gifts. 

Many  details  so  numerous  as  to  be  almost  im- 
possible to  remember  develop  in  connection  with 
polar  supplies  as  the  result  of  experience  in  vari- 
ous expeditions.  The  packing  of  all  provisions 
is  of  the  utmost  importance.  The  first  requisite 
is  that  everything  must  he  in  water-tiffM  pa ph- 
ages, as  an  insurance  against  damage  or  deteri- 
oration if  the  expedition  is  a  long  one,  and  par- 
ticularly as  a  safeguard  against  damage  and 
spoiling  in  case  of  injury  to  the  ship  or  in  emer- 
gency transportation  in  boats  or  across  the  ice 
under  conditions  which  may  mean  the  repeated 
immersion  of  the  supplies  in  sea-water. 

Another  fundamental  essential  is  that  all  pro-" 
visions  must  be  in  packages  not  to  exceed  a 
certain  maximum  weight,  which  can  be  readily 
handled  by  one  man  in  loading  or  unloading  a 
ship  or  boats  or  sledges,  particularly  in  an  emer- 
gency, where  rapid  work  is  essential. 

My  standard  net  weight  for  every  package  of 
all  provisions  which  wre  not  particularly  ship 
provisions  was  fifty /pounds.  The  water-tight 
tins  and  the  light  bo:£  or  crate  outside  of  the  tin 
made  the  gross  weight  of  packages  from  sixty- 
two  or  sixty-three  to  a  maximum  of  seventy-five 
pounds.  Packages  of  this  size  can  be  easily 
picked  up  and  passed  up  from  the  hold  of  a  ship 
by  one  man,  or  can  be  tossed  over  the  rail  to  the 


62  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

ice  in  case  of  the  crushing  of  the  ship,  and  they 
are  easily  and  rapidly  handled  by  one  man  in 
stowing  in  a  boat  or  in  taking  out  of  a  boat. 

Another  detail  of  packing  provisions  which,  as 
far  as  I  know,  was  unique  and  peculiar  to  my  ex- 
peditions, was  making  the  depth  and  width  of  all 
boxes  containing  provisions  the  same,  and  letting 
the  length  vary  in  accordance  with  the  specific 
gravity  of  the  particular  item  of  supplies.  To 
illustrate :  All  boxes  of  oatmeal,  corn-meal,  rice, 
tea,  coffee,  sugar,  etc.,  were  about  twelve  inches 
wide  by  ten  inches  deep,  and  of  a  length  that  would 
just  contain  fifty  pounds  of  the  particular  article. 
Of  course  a  sugar  box  would  be  shorter  than  an 
oatmeal  or  corn-meal  box,  and  a  corn-meal  box 
would  be  shorter  than  a  box  of  tea. 

The  reason  for  this  standardizing  of  two  dimen- 
sions of  the  boxes  was  to  fit  them  to  be  utilized 
for  constructing  houses,  being  laid  up  like  blocks 
of  granite,  and  breaking  joints  in  the  same  way. 
By  this  method  the  supplies  landed  from  the  ship 
at  headquarters  could  easily  be  formed  into  two 
or  three  comfortable  houses  for  shelter  of  the 
members  of  the  expedition  in  case  the  ship  should 
be  crushed  or  burned. 

These  houses  were  built  by  forming  four  walls 
of  the  boxes  of  supplies,  with  the  tops  of  the 
boxes  inside ;  then  putting  boards  or  sails  across 
the  top,  and  banking  the  whole  structure  in  with 
snow.    When    supplies    of    any    kind    were    re- 


SUPPLIES  AND  EQUIPMENT  65 

quired,  the  cover  of  a  box  in  the  wall  of  the  house 
would  be  removed  from  the  inside,  the  tin  con- 
taining the  supplies  removed,  the  empty  box  then 
becoming  a  sort  of  shelf  or  locker  for  other  ar- 
ticles, if  needed.  The  main  point,  however,  was 
that  all  the  supplies  could  be  used,  and  the  house 
still  remain  intact. 

This  method  was  also  valuable  wherever  large 
caches  of  supplies  were  made  at  particular  points, 
as  the  supplies  formed  at  once  a  strong,  comfort- 
able, and  rapidly  constructed  shelter  for  the  use  of 
parties  traveling  that  route  and  camping  at  the 
cache. 

Another  special  point  was  the  marking  of  all 
special  supplies,  such  as  tea,  coffee,  sugar,  milk, 
ship's  biscuit,  which  might  be  called  the  emergency 
supplies,  on  every  side  with  a  dash  of  paint  in  such 
a  way  that  any  one,  whether  able  to  read  or  write  i 
or  not  (or  an  Eskimo),  if  able  to  see  one  side  of  fi 
a  box,  would  know  at  once  its  contents.     This.*,1 
method  of  marking  was  the  result  of  the  experi- 
ences of  some  expeditions  previous  to  mine  in 
which  much  time  was  lost  hunting  for  and  endeav- 
oring to  identify  supplies. 

This  method  also  worked  for  instant  efficiency 
in  case  of  emergency,  as  a  man  could  seize  a  case 
of  sugar  or  coffee  to  throw  over  the  ship's  side  or 
out  of  a  crushed  boat  without  any  false  motions. 

All  these  points  were  worked  out  rather  care- 
fully, and  in  my  opinion  are  so  valuable  that  they 


G6  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

never  should  be  omitted  in  preparing  the  supplies 
of  a  polar  expedition. 

Material  for  equipment  of  my  expeditions  (lum- 
ber for  sledges,  webbing  for  dog  harnesses,  furs 
for  clothing,  tin  for  making  utensils,  etc.)  was  al- 
ways taken  in  bulk  and  in  the  rough,  partly  for 
economy  in  space,  partly  for  economy  in  cost,  and 
largely  to  give  occupation  to  members  of  the  party 
during  the  long  winter  night  in  making  the  finished 
articles. 

It  can  readily  be  seen  that  in  stowing  the  ship 
for  the  northern  voyage,  oak  and  hickory  boards 
for  sledges  would  stow  much  more  compactly  than 
the  sledge  itself,  and  be  less  subject  to  injury.  So, 
too,  with  sheets  of  tin  as  compared  with  utensils 
made  from  the  tin.  With  furs  the  same,  for  made 
up  into  clothing  they  would  require  double  the 
space  taken  up  by  bales. 

This  method  as  regards  sledge  material  is 
particularly  valuable  during  the  upward  voyage, 
when,  as  happened  much  of  the  time,  the  ship  was 
sometimes  delayed  by  the  heavy  character  of  the 
ice,  and  would  have  to  lie  motionless,  with  banked 
fires,  several  days  in  one  place.  At  such  times 
sledge  material  was  brought  on  deck,  and  crew 
and  Eskimos  set  to  work  in  the  best  of  light,  in 
comfortable  temperatures,  to  make  and  assemble 
the  sledges.  In  this  way  every  one  was  kept  oc- 
cupied and  interested  instead  of  loafing  and  fret- 
ting at  the  delay,  and  the  sledges,  as  completed, 


SUPPLIES  AND  EQUIPMENT  67 

were  in  readiness  for  instant  use  as  soon  as  we 
reached  winter  quarters  for  the  ship.  And  they 
were  also  valuable  for  an  emergency,  in  the  event 
of  the  loss  of  the  ship,  to  transport  provisions 
over  the  ice  to  the  shore. 

The  stowing  of  supplies  on  board  the  ship  was 
done  in  accordance  with  a  plan  worked  out  almost 
as  carefully  as  would  be  the  builders'  plans  of  the 
blocks  in  a  granite  building,  so  that  every  item 
could  be  located,  and  the  essential  supplies  and 
items  of  equipment  for  an  emergency — tea,  coffee, 
sugar,  ship's  biscuit,  oil,  guns,  rifles,  ammunition, 
hatchets,  fur  clothing — were  on  top  and  instantly 
accessible.  When  navigating  in  ice,  tea,  coffee, 
sugar,  ship's  biscuit,  and  oil  were  stowed  in  con- 
tinuous lines  on  deck  and  just  inside  the  bulwarks 
of  the  ship  throughout  the  waist,  quarter-deck,  and 
on  both  deck-houses  in  such  a  way  that  one  active 
man  could  throw  a  ton  of  provisions  out  on  the 
ice  in  a  few  minutes.  This  was  in  addition  to 
having  the  whale-boats,  as  they  hung  at  the  davits, 
stowed  and  fitted  with  rifles,  shot-guns,  ammuni- 
tion,  hatchets,  oil-stoves,  matches  in  waterproof/ 
packages,  together  with  several  days '  rations  ofl 
tea,  coffee,  sugar,  milk,  ship's  biscuit,  and  oil. 

This  was  in  rather  striking  contrast  to  an  ear- 
lier American  expedition,  where,  it  is  stated  in  the 
official  report,  nearly  the  entire  cargo  had  to  be 
overhauled  in  order  to  get  at  some  particular 
item — guns  and  ammunition,  if  I  remember  aright. 


68  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

Such  experiences  as  this  are  striking  examples 
and  illustrations  of  what  my  friend  Stefansson 
has  described  very  effectively  in  an  article  en- 
titled "Incompetence  as  a  Literary  Asset  in  Arc- 
tic Matters." 

In  two  particular  items  of  supplies  my  expedi- 
tions have  been  an  antithesis  of  other  expeditions. 
In  the  case  of  one  item  in  its  absence,  in  the  case 
of  the  other  in  its  great  abundance.  These  two 
items  were  meat  and  flour.  As  a  result  of  my  plan 
from  my  earliest  expedition  to  depend  upon  the 
country  itself  for  my  fresh  meat  supply,  I  have 
never  carried  any  of  this  in  the  ship's  stores.  On 
the  other  hand,  having  been  most  fortunate  in  my 
later  expeditions,  when  I  had  my  own  ship,  in  hav- 
ing a  steward  (Charles  Percy)  who  was  a  blue- 
ribboner  in  making  bread  and  cooking  meat,  I 
have  carried  large  quantities  of  flour.  Some 
idea  of  the  amount  of  this  can  be  obtained  by  the 
fact  that  in  my  last  north  polar  expedition,  during 
the  eleven  months  that  the  Roosevelt  was  lying  at 
Cape  Sheridan,  Percy  baked  some  18,000  pounds 
of  bread. 

The  members  of  an  Arctic  party  that  have  fresh 
meat  and  fresh  bread  regularly  can  never  have 
scurvy,  regardless  of  whether  they  see  a  vegetable 
or  a  fruit  or  lime  juice  from  one  year's  end  to  an- 
other. My  work,  extending  over  a  period  of 
twenty-three  years,  during  which  no  symptoms  of 
scurvy  ever  developed,  has  shown  conclusively 


LABRADOR    \\  II  All  \i,    BTEA  MER 


hi  l     FOR    WHALES       I   \i:i:  \I"H:    i  OAS1 


SUPPLIES  AM)  EQUIPMENT  71 

that  white  men  can  remain  in  the  highesl  latitudes 
for  a  period  of  years  with  complete  immunity  from 
the  dreaded  scourge. 

When  it  came  to  the  matter  of  sledge-supplies, 
even  greater  care  in  packing  was  applied.    Pem-I 
mican  for  the  dogs  was  put  up  in  tins  just  as  longl 
as  the  width  of  my  sledges,  so  that  in  a  standard] 
sledge-load  of  dog  pemmican  the  tins  formed  a 
continuous  flooring  to  the  sledge.     The  pemmicanj 
for  the  men  was  put  up  in  tins  that  were  creased 
in  such  a  way  that  the  block  of  pemmican,  when 
removed  from  the  tin,  was  lightly  scored  in  a  way 
that  marked  it  off  into  one  pound  cakes,  and  who- 
ever had  the  distribution  of  the  pemmican  ration 
at  a  camp  had  only  to  insert  a  hunting-knife  or 
saw-knife  or  edge  of  a  hatchet  into  these  marks, 
and  with  a  blow  or  two  separate  the  pemmican  at 
once  into  standard  rations. 

All  these  refinements  and  details  may  seem 
amusing  to  those  who  have  read  the  accounts  of 
some  polar  expeditions  wThere  such  supplies  as 
ship's  biscuit  or  flour  or  the  like  were  carried  in 
bags,  with  no  protection  from  moisture  or  water, 
and  where  contact  with  the  sharp  edges  of  ice  or 
the  sledge  could  easily  punch  a  hole  through  a  bag, 
with  a  consequent  loss  of  some  of  the  provisions 
before  the  mishap  was  noted. 

Some  of  the  same  expeditions  would  get  out 
their  scales  at  each  camp  and  carefully  weigh  out 
the  various  amounts  of  each  item  of  the  rations. 


72  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

On  my  polar  expeditions  my  ship's  biscuit 
were  all  made  rectangular  in  form  and  sixteen 
to  the  pound,  so  that  the  matter  of  adjusting 
the  size  of  a  ration  of  biscuit  was  simply  the  mat- 
ter of  counting  a  certain  number.  If  it  was  a  full 
ration, — that  is,  a  pound  per  man  per  day, — then 
the  number  of  biscuit  was  sixteen.  If  it  was  half- 
ration,  eight ;  a  quarter  ration,  four. 

These  things  may  seem  trivial  to  some  readers, 
but  every  movement  and  operation  which  can 
be  eliminated  and  every  minute  that  can  be 
saved  under  the  trying  accompaniments  of  cold, 
wind,  hunger,  and  fatigue,  which  are  inevitable  in 
polar  travel,  make  for  the  conservation  of  the  en- 
ergy, vitality,  and  morale  of  the  members  of  the 
party. 

My  last  two  expeditions  carried  no  food  experi- 
ments, no  wonderful  preparations,  no  condensed 
products  of  astonishing  powers.  I  had  been 
through  all  this  in  earlier  expeditions,  and  had 
tried  preparation  after  preparation,  only  to  find 
them  of  no  value  on  the  serious  northern  sledge- 
journey,  which  was  the  object  and  climax  of  each 
expedition.  For  that  journey  only  the  four  tried 
articles,  pemmican,  tea,  condensed  milk,  and  hard 
tack,  are  necessary,  and  I  could  not  change  or  bet- 
ter them  for  another  expedition.  On  various  ex- 
peditions I  made  and  tried  out  several  food  mix- 
tures, but  discarded  them  all  after  trial. 


SUPPLIES  AND  EQUIPMENT  73 

In  obtaining  many  of  the  special  items  of  ma- 
terials a  great  deal  of  time  was  spent  searching 
through  the  stores  in  various  places  for  the  par- 
ticular thing  needed. 

To  obtain  a  particular  size  and  shape  of  alumi- 
num dish  all  in  one  piece,  for  a  detail  of  my  spe- 
cial alcohol  field-stove,  I  have  gone  over  the  entire 
aluminum  stock  of  New  York's  great  department 
stores,  and  then  through  the  catalogues  of  all  the 
manufacturers,  till  I  found  what  I  wanted  or 
something  that  could  be  made  to  meet  my  require- 
ments. 

Another  thing  that  I  recall  was  steel  sledge- 
shoes.  It  would  seem  a  simple  thing  to  find  in  any 
place  that  dealt  in  steel,  strips  of  the  metal  two 
inches  wide,  one-eighth  of  an  inch  thick,  and  fifteen 
feet  long,  yet  it  took  me  two  expeditions  to  find 
just  what  I  wanted.  The  steel  for  my  purpose 
must  be  soft  enough  so  that  I  could  drill  it  in  the 
field,  yet  hard  enough  so  that  the  constant  use 
would  not  too  quickly  wear  it  through.  Then  the 
edges  of  the  steel  must  be  sharp,  like  the  edges  of 
a  skate,  so  that  the  sledges  would  not  slew  heavily 
sidewise,  with  almost  certain  injury,  and  so  they 
could  be  tilted  on  the  edge  of  one  runner,  like  a 
skater  doing  the  outer  edge,  without  losing  grip 
on  the  ice.  This  is  a  favorite  device  of  expert 
Eskimo  sledge-drivers  in  difficult  situations.  All 
bar  steel  in  the  market  had  rounded  edges,  and  not 


74  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

till  my  last  expedition,  when  I  found  a  cold- 
sheared  steel  with  edges  as  sharp  as  a  skate,  did  I 
get  just  the  sledge-shoe  that  I  needed. 

Then  there  were  the  screws  for  attaching  the 
shoes.  The  constant  pounding  to  which  sledge- 
shoes  are  subjected  in  traversing  rough  sea-ice 
soon  jars  off  the  heads  of  any  screw  that  I  could 
find  in  the  market.  After  a  long  search  I  found  a 
tough  wire  nail  of  the  right  diameter,  which,  by 
cutting  to  the  necessary  length,  gave  me  what  I 
wanted. 

As  a  matter  not  of  conscientious  scruples,  but 
of  judgment  and  taste,  I  am  neither  a  drinker  nor 
a  smoker,  and  I  have  always  selected  men  for  my 
parties  who  used  neither  tobacco  nor  spirits. 
Liquor  should  have  no  place  in  a  polar  ration 
either  for  camp  or  field.  Yet  on  special  occasions, 
as  on  Thanksgiving,  Christmas,  and  birthdays, 
nothing  gives  more  zest  or  helps  to  lift  the  day  out 
of  the  even  monotony  of  the  days  on  each  side  than 
a  glass  of  grog  or  light  wine. 

The  liquor  supply  of  my  expeditions  has  always 
included  brandy  and  whisky  and  a  little  wine. 
Neither  was  ever  a  part  of  the  regular  ration,  and 
yet  no  party  was  ever  sent  out  without  brandy  or 
whisky  in  its  equipment.  Brandy  or  whisky  is  a 
medicine  as  much  as  salts  or  calomel,  and  should 
be  regarded  and  utilized  as  such  despite  the 
shrieks  of  fanatics. 

If  it  were  possible  to  obtain  strong  hot  tea  or 


DUNHAM    SNOW    SHOES 

'he  center  pair  of  shoes,  five  feel   long,  one  Eoo1   wide,  with  raised  toe 

and  ski  curve  in  middle,  is  the  besl   shoe  made 


I 


11  EMS    OF    SLEDGE    RATIONS 

Lefl  i"  righl  :    Compressed  tea,  condensed  milk,  pemmican,  oil,  alcohol, 

'Iol'  pemmican,  and  ship  biscuil 


SUPPLIES  AND  EQUIPMENT  77 

coffee  instantly  on  a  sledge-journey  in  extreme 
low  temperatures,  there  would  be  little  use  for 
spirits.  But  when  every  drop  of  water  must  be 
melted  from  ice  at  temperatures  of  minus  sixty 
degrees  or  lower,  and  then  raised  to  the  boiling 
point,  it  takes  time.  And  when  a  member  of  the 
party  has  seriously  injured  himself  or  has  fallen 
in  the  icy  water,  something  is  needed  on  the  in- 
stant to  brace  his  system  and  keep  him  from  too 
serious  a  reaction  until  a  snow  igloo  can  be  built  to 
shelter  him. 

Tobacco  is  equally  or  more  objectionable  in 
polar  work.  It  affects  the  wind  endurance  of  a 
man,  particularly  in  low  temperatures,  adds  an 
extra  and  entirely  unnecessary  article  to  the  outfit, 
vitiates  the  atmosphere  of  tent  or  igloo,  and,  when 
the  supply  gives  out,  renders  the  user  a  nuisance 
to  himself  and  those  about  him. 

Of  all  the  items  which  go  to  make  up  the  list  of 
supplies  for  a  polar  expedition,  the  one  which 
ranks  first  in  importance  is  pemmican.  It  is  also 
the  one  which  starts  the  most  instant  interroga- 
tion from  the  average  person.  I  usually  find  that 
the  character  of  this  absolutely  indispensable  food 
is  most  quickly  grasped  if  I  describe  it  as  a  dry 
mince-meat. 

Pemmican  is  understood  to  be  of  Indian  origin, 
originally  made  of  the  meat  and  fat  of  the  buffalo, 
and  its  name,  from  the  Cree  language,  means 
ground  meat  and  grease.    It  is  said  that  in  the 


78  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

days  when  buffalo  herds  were  numerous  the  In- 
dians and  half-breeds  made  large  quantities  of 
pemmican  in  the  autumn  hunting,  cutting  the  buf- 
falo meat  in  long,  thin  strips,  which  were  dried  in 
the  sun  and  wind,  then,  mixed  with  buffalo  fat, 
were  pounded  into  a  mass. 

Too  much  cannot  be  said  of  the  importance  of 
pemmican  to  a  polar  expedition.  It  is  an  absolute 
sine  qua  non.  Without  it  a  sledge-party  cannot 
compact  its  supplies  within  a  limit  of  weight  to 
make  a  serious  polar  journey  successful.  Perhaps 
I  should  modify  that  by  saying  to  make  a  north 
polar  journey  possible,  as  the  conditions  in  the 
north  are  such  as  to  make  a  successful  journey  in 
that  region  a  severer  test  of  refinement  in  methods 
and  supplies  and  equipment  than  anywhere  else. 
With  pemmican,  the  most  serious  sledge- journey 
can  be  undertaken  and  carried  to  a  successful  issue 
in  the  absence  of  all  other  foods. 

Of  all  foods  that  I  am  acquainted  with,  pemmi- 
can is  the  only  one  that,  under  appropriate  condi- 
tions, a  man  can  eat  twice  a  day  for  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  days  in  a  year  and  have  the  last 
mouthful  taste  as  good  as  the  first.  And  it  is  the 
most  satisfying  food  I  know.  I  recall  innumer- 
able marches  in  bitter  temperatures  when  men  and 
dogs  had  been  worked  to  the  limit  and  I  reached 
the  place  for  camp  feeling  as  if  I  could  eat  my 
weight  of  anything.  When  the  pemmican  ration 
was  dealt  out,  and  I  saw  my  little  half-pound  lump, 


SUPPLIES  AND  EQUIPMENT  79 

about  as  large  as  the  bottom  third  of  an  ordinary 
drinking-glass,  I  have  often  felt  a  sullen  rage  that 
life  should  contain  such  situations.  By  the  time 
I  had  finished  the  last  morsel  I  would  not  have 
walked  round  the  completed  igloo  for  anything  or 
everything  that  the  St.  Regis,  the  Blackstone,  or 
the  Palace  Hotel  could  have  put  before  me. 

Even  the  Eskimo  dogs  were  at  times  obliged  to 
yield  to  the  filling  qualities  of  pemmican,  and  any- 
thing that  will  stay  the  appetite  of  a  healthy  Es- 
kimo dog  must  possess  some  body.  I  recall  an  in- 
stance where  my  powerful  king  dog  discovered  a 
tin  of  pemmican  that  had  had  a  hole  punched  in  it 
in  some  way.  The  maddening  smell  of  the  lus- 
cious beef  fat  through  the  hole  spurred  him  to 
drive  his  iron  jaws  through  the  tin  until  he  had 
ripped  it  like  a  can-opener  and  reached  the  con- 
tents. Had  the  tin  contained  ordinary  meat,  the 
twelve  pounds  would  have  been  merely  an  appe- 
tizer for  him ;  but  when  I  found  him  later,  he  had 
voluntarily  quit,  with  only  a  portion  of  the  pem- 
mican eaten.  And — though  this  may  not  be  be- 
lieved by  others  who  have  had  experience  with 
Eskimo  dogs — he  would  eat  nothing  more  that 
day. 

Pemmican  is  the  only  food  for  dogs  on  a  seri- 
ous polar  sledge  journey:  and  there  is  nothing  as 
good  as  walrus  meat  to  keep  dogs  in  good  condi- 
tion during  the  autumn  and  winter  at  headquar- 
ters previous  to  the  sledge  journey.    I  found  a 


80  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

special  brand  of  bacon  which  I  obtained  in  hun- 
dred-pound cases  one  of  the  best  substitutes  for 
the  walrus  meat. 

On  my  last  expedition  as  an  insurance  against 
lack  of  time  or  poor  luck  in  walrus  hunting,  I  took 
on  board  several  tons  of  whale  meat  in  bulk  at  one 
of  the  Labrador  whaling  stations. 

Future  polar  explorers  may  find  this  whale 
meat  a  convenient  and  economical  source  of  sup- 
ply for  their  winter  dog  food. 

The  whale  meat  should  be  packed  at  the  station 
in  tins  containing  fifty  to  one  hundred  pounds 
each.  These  tins  should  be  filled  with  fresh  sweet 
meat  from  whales  just  killed,  and  each  tin  should 
be  filled  solid  under  the  constant  supervision  of 
a  representative  of  the  expedition. 

In  my  various  expeditions  I  have  naturally  had 
some  experiences  with  pemmican.  In  my  first  two 
journeys  my  pemmican  supply  was  part  of  the 
pemmican  made  for  the  Greety  relief  expedition. 
A  large  amount  of  pemmican  was  made  for  this 
party;  but  as  the  few  survivors  of  the  unfortunate 
Greely  expedition  were  rescued  at  Cape  Sabine 
and  brought  home  in  a  few  weeks,  virtually  none 
of  it  was  used.  On  the  return  of  the  rescue  party 
this  pemmican  was  bought  in  at  auction  by  a 
dealer  in  such  supplies,  and  my  outfit  was  ob- 
tained from  him.  This  pemmican  was  more  sat- 
isfactory than  any  I  have  ever  had  since.  Nine- 
tenths  of  it  was  just  as  good  as  when  made,  and 


SUPPLIES  AND  EQUIPMENT  81 

the  fact  that  occasional  tins  of  it  were  bad  was  no 
drawback  and  caused  me  no  loss,  as  such  tins  were 
accepted  by  the  dogs  at  their  face  value. 

The  one  objection  to  this  pemmican,  in  the  ex- 
treme refinement  of  space  and  weight  demanded 
for  the  sledge-journey  across  the  central  polar 
ocean,  was  that  it  was  put  up  in  round  tins. 

When  this  supply  was  exhausted,  I  had  some 
pemmican  made  for  me;  but  it  was  not  entirely 
satisfactory,  and  on  a  still  later  expedition  I  was 
persuaded  to  purchase  some  so-called  pemmican 
of  a  foreign  make.  This,  after  I  had  sailed  and  it 
was  too  late  to  remedy  the  error,  I  found  to  be 
largely  composed  of  pea-flour.  While  nourishing 
and  more  or  less  satisfactory  to  the  men  of  the 
party,  it  was  of  essentially  no  value  whatever  for 
the  dogs,  and  the  work  of  the  expedition  was  just 
cut  in  half  by  the  impossibility  of  keeping  the  dogs 
in  first-class  condition  to  do  hard  work. 

Later  on  I  was  consoled  to  a  certain  extent  for 
this  mistake  on  learning  that  a  foreign  expedition, 
in  having  its  pemmican  prepared,  had  very  care- 
fully extracted  all  fat  from  the  preparation,  with 
the  consequent  loss  of  heat-producing  qualities, 
which  was  quickly  discovered  in  the  field  under 
the  stress  of  serious  work. 

In  my  last  expeditions  mvpemmican  was  made 
specially  by  American  firms,  and  specially  packed 
for  my  particular  requirements.  Its  composition, 
as  ordered,  was  as  follows:  two-thirds  lean  beef, 


82  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

dried  until  friable,  then  ground  lino,  and  mixed 
with  one-third  beef  fat,  a  little  sugar,  and  a  few 
raisins.  Of  course  no  one  but  the  makers  knew 
how  much  cat,  dog,  mule,  and  horse  meat  mas- 
queraded in  the  pemmican  under  the  guise  of  beef ; 
but  it  all  went,  and  in  the  case  of  the  dog  pemmi- 
can, of  course,  it  made  no  difference.  In  my 
1905-06  expedition  the  makers,  however,  in  a 
business-like  and  perhaps  legitimate  effort  to 
make  the  meat  go  as  far  as  possible,  made  liberal 
use  of  bone  meal  in  the  dog  pemmican.  The  effect 
of  this  upon  the  dogs  was  exactly  like  feeding  a 
boiler  with  coal  fifty  per  cent,  of  which  is  slate 
and  dirt,  and  the  work  obtained  from  them  was 
just  about  in  proportion  to  the  work  that  would 
be  obtained  from  boilers  in  these  circumstances. 

In  my  last  expedition  a  more  careful  inspection 
and  insistence  on  edible  substances  in  the  dog 
pemmican  remedied  this  trouble.  A  portion  of 
the  pemmican,  however,  contained  an  ingredient 
which  was  not  at  all  in  the  original  specifications, 
and  which  I  should  strongly  advise  against  in  the 
pemmican  of  future  expeditions,  that  is,  broken 
glass.  Fortunately,  none  of  my  party  experi- 
enced any  ill  effects  from  this,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  we  still  retained  the  civilized  habit  of  chew- 
ing our  food,  and  detected  the  presence  of  the 
glass  before  it  was  swallowed.  A  number  of 
sudden  and  unaccountable  deaths  of  my  dogs, 
however,  we  attributed  directly  to  this  cause. 


SUrriJES  AND  EQUIPMENT  83 

Pemmican  made  of  the  materials  and  in  the  pro- 
portions required  by  my  specifications  is,  in  my 
opinion,  as  nearly  perfect  for  the  purpose  for 
which  it  is  intended  as  it  is  possible  to  make  it. 
I  do  not  believe  that  it  can  be  improved  upon,  and 
I  feel  that  experiments  or  changes  in  it  are  likely 
to  be  dangerous  to  the  success  of  an  expedition. 

As  an  illustration  of  this  a  subsequent  expedi- 
tion, feeling  that  the  pemmican  would  be  im- 
proved in  taste  by  the  addition  of  some  season- 
ing, ordered  the  addition  of  salt  to  the  other  in- 
gredients, and  as  a  result  when  it  was  used  con- 
tinuously in  the  field  the  Eskimo  dogs,  unaccus- 
tomed to  salt  in  any  form  whatever,  sickened  and 
some  of  them  died. 

Next  to  insistent,  minute,  personal  attention  to 
the  building  of  his  ship  the  Polar  explorer  should 
give  his  personal,  constant,  and  insistent  atten- 
tion to  the  making  of  his  pemmican,  and  should 
know  that  every  batch  of  it  packed  for  him  is  made 
of  the  proper  material  in  the  proper  proportion 
and  in  accordance  with  his  specifications. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ICE    NAVIGATION 

ON  July  6,1  1908,  a  black,  rakish-looking 
steamer  moved  slowly  up  the  East  River, 
New  York,  beside  a  puffing  tug.  Seen  broadside 
on,  this  craft  was  as  trim  and  rakish  as  a  yacht ; 
seen  end  on,  the  impression  given  was  of  the 
breadth  of  beam  and  solidity  of  a  battle-ship. 

A  sailor,  glimpsing  any  feature  of  this  vessel, — 
the  slender,  raking  pole-masts;  the  big,  elliptical 
smoke-stack;  the  sharply  inclined  stem;  the  over- 
hanging stern ;  the  sheer  of  the  bows ;  the  barrel 
at  the  mast-head, — would  have  noted  its  peculiar- 
ity, and  looked  the  vessel  over  with  great  interest ; 
and  yet  she  did  not  look  a  ' 'freak"  ship.  As  she 
passed  along,  whistles  on  each  shore  vied  with 
one  another  in  clamorous  salutations,  and  pass- 
ing craft,  from  the  little  power-boat  to  the  big 

i  The  sixth  of  the  month  is  a  date  of  rather  special  interest 
to  the  writer.  To  begin  with,  it  is  his  birthday.  Then  it  is  the 
day  on  which  the  Roosevelt  steamed  north  on  the  successful  quest 
for  the  pole;  the  day  on  which  the  pole  was  reached,  and  the  day 
on  which  the  wireless  message  of  success  was  flashed  over  the 
world  from  the  bleak  Labrador  station.  Later  it  was  the  day  on 
which  the  writer  was  made  grand  oflicier  of  the  Legion  of  Honor 
by  the  President  of  France,  the  day  on  which  he  began  his  efforts 
for  air  preparedness  for  this  country,  and  the  day  (ninth  anni- 
versary of  discovery  of  the  pole)  on  which  this  country,  by  the 
President's  signature,  formally  entered  the  greatest  of  all  wars. 

84 


> 


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v.      _; 

—      —    ' 

s  -                      m 

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1 1    ■           ffl 

OH 

i  B  M 

el 

J"" 


i 


ICE  NAVIGATION  87 

Sound  steamer,  clipped  flags  and  shrieked  a  greet- 
ing. 

With  glasses  one  could  make  out  on  a  pen- 
nant flying  from  the  masthead,  Roosevelt.  The 
Stars  and  Stripes  at  the  stern  were  fluttering 
up  and  down  incessantly,  and  the  white  jets  of 
steam  from  her  whistle  were  continuous  in  answer 
to  the  salutes. 

This  was  the  arctic  ice-fighter  Roosevelt,  as 
sturdy  and  aggressive  as  her  namesake,  built  on 
American  plans,  by  American  labor,  of  American 
material,  and  then  on  her  way  to  secure  the  North 
Pole  as  an  American  trophy. 

At  Oyster  Bay  the  ship  was  inspected  and  given 
God-speed  by  President  Eoosevelt,  then  steamed 
out  through  Long  Island  Sound,  to  Sydney,  Cape 
Breton,  for  her  cargo  of  coal,  then  through  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  up  the  Labrador  coast, 
through  Davis  Strait,  across  Melville  Bay,  and 
between  the  arctic  Pillars  of  Hercules,  Cape  Alex- 
ander and  Cape  Isabella,  to  the  battle-ground  and 
the  fight  for  which  she  was  built — the  conquest  of 
the  contracted  channels  filled  with  massive,  mov- 
ing ice  which  form  the  American  gateway  to  the 
polar  ocean. 

The  design  of  the  Roosevelt  was  based  upon 
twenty  years  of  actual  experience  afloat  and 
ashore  in  the  very  region  where  she  was  to  be 
used.  I  had  reversed  all  previous  practice  in  re- 
gard to  polar  ships,  and  had  made  this  one  a  pow- 


88  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

erful  steamer  with  auxiliary  sail  power  instead  of 
a  sailing-ship  with  auxiliary  steam-power.  I  had 
seen  her  keel  fashioned  and  laid,  I  had  seen  her 
ribs  grow  in  place,  I  had  seen  them  clothed  with 
planks,  the  steel-clad  stem  and  stern  shape  them- 
selves, had  seen  every  timber  put  into  place  and 
every  bolt  driven.  I  felt  that  I  had  beneath  my 
feet  a  magnificent  tool  and  fighting  machine  that 
would  put  me  within  striking  distance  of  the  pole. 

Innumerable  conversations  during  a  number  of 
years  with  all  kinds  of  intelligent,  well-read  peo- 
ple have  shown  me  conclusively  that  outside  of  the 
scientist,  the  geographer,  and  those  who  have 
made  a  study  of  polar  exploration,  the  average 
person  has  no  idea  whatever  of  the  real  charac- 
ter of  polar  ice. 

Perhaps  the  most  general  impression — I  shall 
not  call  it  idea,  because  it  is  not  definite  enough 
for  that — is  that  the  ice  of  the  polar  ocean  is  a 
smooth,  even,  permanent  surface,  and  that  the 
terrible  cold  of  that  region  was  the  principal 
reason  why  it  was  not  traversed  long  ago.  Others 
think  that  this  ice  is  snow-covered,  and  still  others 
are  far  enough  advanced  to  think  of  it  as  rough, 
hummocky,  or  even  ragged,  but  yet  as  fixed  as  land 
itself. 

Ideas  as  to  the  thickness  of  the  ice  are  equally 
wrong,  varying  from  a  few  feet  to  a  conception 
of  the  entire  polar  ocean  as  solid.    Most  people 


ICE  NAVIGATION  89 

take  it  for  granted  that  the  ice  has  been  formed 
by  the  freezing  of  the  ocean  water. 

The  character  of  ice  varies  in  different  portions 
of  the  polar  regions.  North  of  Spitzbergen  and 
Franz-Josef-Land  and  the  long  stretches  of  the 
Siberian  coasts  there  may  be  even  in  midwinter 
miles  of  ice  of  a  few  inches  or  a  foot  or  two  in 
thickness.  This,  however,  the  navigator  of  a  ship 
rarely  sees,  as  it  has  either  been  broken  up  by 
the  wind  or  melted  by  the  sun  before  the  season 
of  navigation  begins. 

In  Melville  Bay  and  the  channels  of  the  North 
American  archipelago,  like  Lancaster  Sound  and 
Jones  Sound  and  their  western  extensions,  ice 
forms  early  in  the  autumn  and  continues  to  in- 
crease in  thickness  through  the  winter  until  it 
reaches  a  thickness  of  six  or  eight  feet  or,  in  the 
fresher  waters  near  the  coast  of  North  America, 
nine  feet  in  thickness. 

Some  of  this  ice,  with  the  advent  of  summer, 
slowly  melts  in  place  and  disappears.  Most  of 
it,  however,  gradually  decreases  in  thickness  as 
spring  progresses,  becomes  perforated  with  holes 
where  the  warmer  and  fresher  water  from  the 
melting  snow  on  its  surface  bores  through,  and 
then  moves  off  in  great  fields  sometimes  miles 
across. 

Ice  of  this  kind,  encountered  in  July  or 
August,  presents  about  the  simplest  form  of  ice- 


90  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

work.  Two  or  three  well-directed  blows  at  full 
speed  by  a  ship  like  the  Roosevelt  will  often  start 
a  crack  across  a  field  a  mile  or  more  wide  through 
which  the  ship  can  slowly  crowd  her  way.  Or  con- 
tinuous ramming  will  result  in  progress,  from  half 
to  a  full  ship 's  length  being  gained  at  a  blow. 

Such  ice  presents  no  menace  at  any  time  to  a 
ship  like  the  Roosevelt,  as  it  cannot  crush  her,  and 
is  simply  irritating  because  of  the  slow  progress 
it  causes  and  the  persistent  way  in  which  it  drags 
along  the  ship's  side.  In  ice  like  this  the  mo- 
notony is  often  relieved  by  the  cry  of  ' '  Nannook ! ' ' 
(bear),  from  the  masthead,  and  the  resulting 
scurry  over  the  ice  in  pursuit  of  the  animal. 

North  of  Greenland  and  Grant  Land,  from  their 
northern  shores  to  the  pole,  the  character  of  the 
ice  of  the  polar  ocean  is  entirely  different.  In 
my  final  journey  to  the  pole  less  than  one-tenth 
of  the  ice  traversed  was  ice  formed  by  the  freez- 
ing of  the  ocean  surface,  and  more  than  nine- 
tenths  was  fresh-water  ice,  great  fields,  some  of 
them  of  astonishing  thickness,  broken  off  from  the 
low,  undulating  glaciers  of  northern  Grant  Land 
and  Greenland,  and  the  " glacial  fringe"  which 
skirts  all  those  northern  coasts. 

The  thickness  of  ice  varied  from  half  an  inch 
to  an  inch  on  cracks  and  narrow  lanes  a  few  yards 
wide  that  had  just  frozen  over,  to  floes  drawing 
one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  of  water,  and  with 
hummocks  thirty  feet  above  water-level. 


ICE  NAVIGATION  91 

During  the  winter  this  mass  of  ice  is  for  the 
most  part  quiet,  except  that  at  the  spring-tides  of 
every  month  cracks  and  narrow  lanes  form,  and 
then  freeze  rapidly  again.  Violent  wind-storms 
will  cause  some  disturbance  in  the  ice,  the  press- 
ure against  the  hummocks  and  ragged  pinnacles  of 
the  large  fields  causing  them  to  crush  any  thin 
ice  before  them  and  throw  it  up  in  ridges,  thus 
leaving  lanes  or  pools  of  open  water  behind,  and 
causing  a  slow  grinding,  twisting  motion  of  the 
pack,  which,  however,  stops,  and  the  open  water 
freezes  over,  with  the  cessation  of  the  wind. 

In  June,  July,  August,  September,  October,  and 
November  the  mass  of  ice  becomes  separated  into 
its  various  parts,  and  while  no  water  may  be  visi- 
ble, the  fields  and  cakes  of  ice  are  simply  in  con- 
tact, not  frozen  together.  Then  the  spring-tides 
cause  much  greater  motion,  and  a  violent  storm 
will  set  the  whole  mass  driving  before  it,  with  the 
big  floes  wheeling  and  smashing  everything  in 
their  course  until  the  storm  ceases  or  the  move- 
ment is  stopped  by  contact  with  land.  Wide  lanes 
and  large  areas  of  open  water  form,  and  do  not 
freeze  over,  and  the  whole  ocean  is  similar  to  a 
river  in  which  the  ice  breaking  up  in  the  spring 
is  moving. 

This  is  the  time  when  the  ice  pours  into  all  the 
southward-leading  channels ;  that  is,  between 
Franz-Josef-Land  and  Spitzbergen,  between 
Spitzbergen   and   Iceland,   between   Iceland   and 


92  SECRETS  OF  rOLAR  TRAVEL 

Greenland,  and  down  the  American  gateway  be- 
tween Greenland  and  Grant  Land. 

In  none  of  these  places  is  ice  navigation  a  more 
serious  proposition  than  in  the  last.  With  the 
exception  of  brief  and  infrequent  periods  when 
the  combination  of  a  fresh  southwesterly  wind 
and  ebb-tide  pushes  a  fan  of  open  water  or  loosely 
drifting  ice-cakes  out  from  the  northern  entrance 
to  this  channel  between  Cape  Sheridan  and  Cape 
Brevoort,  the  ice  is  constantly  moving  rapidly 
southward  through  this  outlet.  When  strong 
northerly  winds  combine  with  spring-flood  tides, 
it  rushes  through  with  a  violence  that  is  startling. 

Entering  the  widely  flaring  funnel  between  Cape 
Joseph  Henry  and  Cape  Stanton,  then  the  nar- 
rower one  between  Cape  Sheridan  and  Repulse 
Harbor,  the  ice  is  compressed  between  the  iron 
cliffs  of  Cape  Beechey  and  Polaris  Promontory 
(less  than  eleven  miles),  while  the  swift  current 
of  this  deep  gorge  does  not  permit  it  to  stop,  and 
despite  a  slight  overflow  into  Newman  Bay,  is 
forced  sometimes  a  hundred  feet  up  the  cliffs  by 
the  resistless  momentum  and  pressure  from  be- 
hind. In  mid-channel  the  pressure  forces  the  ice 
to  rafter,  or  ride,  one  field  over  the  other,  or  the 
edges  of  the  floes  crumble  as  they  come  together, 
and  pile  up  the  huge  ice-blocks  in  long  ridges  fifty 
or  seventy-five  feet  high.  Many  of  the  ice-cakes 
are  forced  far  under  water.  One  who  has  seen  a 
big  drive  of  logs  which  filled  the  banks  of  a  rapid 


ICE  NAVIGATION  03 

river  pile  up  and  plunge  under  and  ride  over  when 
some  narrow  rock  gorge  is  reached  can  get  a  crude 
idea. 

Once  through  this  gorge,  Lady  Franklin  Bay 
and  Peterman  Fiord  give  the  ice  a  chance  to  ex- 
pand, and  a  ship  may  find  here  in  Hall  Basin  some 
open  water.  Then  the  walls  narrow  again  be- 
tween Cape  Defosse  and  Cape  Bryant,  and  far- 
ther south  the  passage  is  obstructed  by  Franklin 
Island  and  Cape  Constitution,  till  the  main  chan- 
nel is  less  than  ten  miles  wide,  before  opening 
out  into  the  wide  expanse  of  Kane  Basin,  only 
to  be  constricted  again  between  Cape  Sabine  and 
Cairn  Point  to  a  width  of  twenty-two  miles. 

When  working  north  in  these  channels,  the  only 
sure  way  much  of  the  time  is  to  hug  the  shore, 
taking  advantage  of  every  sheltering  point  and 
shallow  bit  of  water,  crowding  on  all  steam  and 
forcing  ahead  a  few  miles  on  the  ebb-tide,  then 
making  fast  with  all  the  lines  and  holding  on  des- 
perately during  the  flood-tide,  with  the  ice  spin- 
ning past  only  a  few  feet  from  the  ship's  side. 
Occasionally  courage  and  judgment  give  a  fifty 
or  hundred  mile  run  in  mid-channel,  but  at  its  end 
a  firm  shore-hold  is  necessary  to  prevent  being 
set  back  by  the  ever  southward  rush  of  the  ice, 
and  losing  all  the  hard-earned  miles. 

A  kind  of  ice  navigation  that  may  be  encoun- 
tered by  polar  ships  returning  from  a  voyage  late 
in  the  season  is  the  tough,  leathery,  newly  form- 


94-  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

ing  young  ice.  A  fortunate  experience  and  ap- 
prenticeship in  the  whaler  Eagle,  in  a  very  late 
and  unusual  voyage  in  1886,  gave  me  some  knowl- 
edge of  this,  which  proved  invaluable  in  later 
years,  and  on  the  expedition  of  1905-06  kept  me 
from  being  held  in  the  arctic  a  year  longer  with 
the  crippled  Roosevelt.  For  nearly  twenty-four 
hours  on  the  Eagle  voyage,  her  crew,  rushing  back 
and  forth  across  her  deck  timed  by  Captain  Jack- 
man  or  me,  rolled  her  from  side  to  side,  while  her 
engines,  going  at  full  speed,  slowly  drove  her  out 
of  the  clutch  of  the  young  ice  in  Cumberland 
Sound.  A  day  later,  and  we  probably  would  not 
have  escaped. 

In  1906,  when  at  last,  late  in  September,  the  bat- 
tered Roosevelt  forced  her  way  out  of  the  heavy 
ice  some  miles  north  of  Cairn  Point,  young  ice  sev- 
eral inches  thick  extended  all  the  way  to  Littleton 
Island.  This  ice  was  just  a  little  too  thick  for 
the  Roosevelt  to  steam  through,  but  by  rolling 
her,  as  we  had  rolled  the  Eagle  years  before,  she 
moved  slowly  through  it.  A  little  later  an  east- 
erly breeze  sprang  up,  and,  with  all  sails  set,  these 
heeled  the  Roosevelt  to  just  the  right  angle  to 
have  her  lee  bow  turn  the  ice  under  her  in  a  steady 
stream,  and  she  walked  along  to  open  water  with- 
out a  hitch. 

At  this  season  of  the  year  a  returning  ship 
should  never  stop  in  a  deep  bay,  should,  if  possi- 


DBYING   SAILS  ON  THE  "BOOSEVELT"    \r  CA]  I     SHEBIDAN 


» 
i 


-ill   \i;  POLES    FOB    HANDLING    THE   "BOOSEVELT's"    in.m  BED    l;i  hum; 


ICE  NAVIGATION  97 

ble,  not  get  caught  over  night  in  loose  ice,  and 
should  always  have  full  steam  up. 

The  key  to  all  polar  work  is  ice  navigation.  It 
has  made  possible  the  attainment  of  the  north  and 
south  poles  and  the  solution  of  many  other  mys- 
teries of  the  surrounding  regions  which  have  baf- 
fled scientists  for  hundreds  of  years.  It  is  ice 
navigation  which  puts  an  expedition  where  it  can 
do  its  work,  puts  it  within  striking  distance  of  its 
objective,  and  without  this  key  the  knowledge 
which  the  world  now  has  of  polar  conditions  and 
geography  would  be  comparatively  little. 

The  history  of  ice  navigation  dates  back  to  the 
latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when  for  the 
first  time  the  arctic  circle  was  penetrated  by  Se- 
bastian Cabot.  What  ice  navigation  was  in  the 
earliest  days  it  is  almost  impossible  to  imagine, 
though  some  of  the  old  chronicles  give  here  and 
there  a  glimpse  of  it,  and  the  narrative  of  Bar- 
ents's  voyage  helps  us  to  form  an  idea.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  in  the  little  craft  of  those  days  the 
terrors  of  the  ice  to  first  adventurers  loomed  as 
terrible  as  the  horrors  of  our  childhood  ghost- 
stories. 

With  the  growth  of  the  whale  fisheries  in  Baffin 
and  Hudson  Bays,  the  navigation  of  the  ice  by  the 
Scottish  and  American  sailors  in  the  first  whalers, 
square-rigged  sailing-ships,  became  a  science,  and 
the  way  in  which  those  ships  were  worked  through 


98  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

tortuous  leads  under  sail  was  almost  unhuman,  if 
some  of  the  stories  are  believed.  With  a  strong 
breeze,  these  ships  could  even  at  times  do  a  bit 
of  ramming,  backing  their  sails  to  give  them  stern- 
way,  and  then  squaring  them  forward  to  go  ahead. 
But  when  there  was  no  wind,  then  they  were  often 
laboriously  "tracked"  by  their  crews  walking 
along  the  ice ;  that  is,  towed  along  like  canal-boats 
with  a  tow-rope.  At  other  times  a  small  anchor 
would  be  carried  out  ahead  as  far  as  the  longest 
hawser  on  board,  hooked  in  a  hole  cut  in  the  ice, 
and  the  ship  slowly  warped  up  to  it  by  working 
the  windlass. 

When  the  ice  was  in  small  pieces,  the  crew  would 
get  out  with  long  poles  and  push  piece  after  piece 
behind  the  vessel,  enabling  her  to  move  slowly 
ahead.  Often,  however,  hours  and  even  days  of 
laborious  work  would  be  set  at  naught  by  a  shift  of 
the  wind  or  a  movement  of  the  ice  setting  the  ship 
back  for  miles. 

This  use  of  poles  to  push  the  ice  aside  was  the 
custom  even  up  to  very  recent  times.  I  recall 
how  the  Windward,  in  August,  1898,  coming  out 
of  Etah  Harbor,  was  obliged  to  force  her  way 
through  a  stream  of  ice  two  or  three  miles  in 
width.  The  engine  power  of  the  Windward  was 
pronouncedly  weak,  and  we  were  obliged  to  resort 
to  this  method  to  get  the  ice  out  of  the  way,  so  that 
she  might  strike  feeble  blows  at  the  firmer  cakes. 

I  also  remember  distinctly  the  feelings   with 


ICE  NAVIGATION  99 

which  I  watched  the  Hope,  a  more  powerful  ship, 
less  than  a  mile  north  of  us,  moving  steadily  along 
through  ice  of  the  same  character,  finally  emerg- 
ing into  the  open  water  on  the  outside  of  the 
stream,  and  disappearing  from  sight  to  the  south 
before  the  Windward  was  completely  through. 

The  introduction  of  steam  revolutionized  polar 
navigation  as  it  did  all  other  kinds,  though  the 
first  attempt  to  utilize  it  in  the  Victory  was  a  rank 
failure.  To  whalers  fitted  with  engines  as  well  as 
sails,  voyages,  which  before  were  a  gamble,  now 
became  a  regular  certainty,  and  fishing-grounds 
were  sought  and  utilized  that  before  were  abso- 
lutely impossible. 

Without  steam  the  conquest  of  the  south  polar 
regions  would  have  been  impossible  despite  Wed- 
dell's  surprising  voyage  in  the  early  thirties. 
Without  steam  the  Northwest  Passage  and  the 
Northeast  Passage  might  still  be  unnegotiated, 
and  without  steam  the  north  pole  would  still  be 
undiscovered. 

As  late  as  the  fifties  and  sixties  the  ships  of 
Kane  and  Hayes  were  propelled  by  sails  alone. 
Hall  in  the  seventies  was  the  first  American  to 
have  a  steam  vessel. 

With  the  construction  of  the  powerful  Roose- 
velt, built  not  only  for  avoiding  ice  pressure,  but 
for  forcing  her  way  through  it  and,  when  neces- 
sary, smashing  it  with  powerful  blows,  ice  navi- 
gation became  a  gladiatorial  contest,  a  royal  sport, 


100  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

with  the  Roosevelt's  steel-clad  bow  as  ca?stus  and 
her  fifteen  hundred  tons  of  displacement  to  drive 
it  home. 

There  is  probably  no  place  where  ice  navigation 
is  so  hazardous  as  in  the  Smith  Sound,  or  Ameri- 
can, route  to  the  pole,  where  the  heaviest  of  ice, 
swift  currents,  narrow  channels,  and  iron  shores 
make  the  pressures  sudden,  erratic,  almost  contin- 
uous, and  of  great  intensity.  The  negotiation  of 
the  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  virtually  solid 
ice  of  all  conceivable  shapes  and  sizes  that  lie  be- 
tween Etah  and  Cape  Sheridan  presents  problems 
and  difficulties,  which  will  test  the  experience  and 
nerve  of  the  ablest  navigator,  and  the  powers  of 
the  strongest  vessel  that  man  can  build.  The 
value  of  detailed  experience  in  such  strenuous 
work  cannot  be  too  strongly  accentuated.  In  my 
earlier  expeditions  I  have  traveled  the  shores  of 
these  channels  anywhere  from  three  to  eight 
times,  and  know  every  foot  of  the  coast  from 
Payer  Harbor  in  Ellesmere  Land  to  Cape  Joseph 
Henry  on  the  Grant  Land  shore,  and  the  ice  con- 
ditions to  be  encountered.  It  was  my  minute 
familiarity  with  the  tides  of  these  regions,  the 
small  bays  or  indentations  which  would  afford 
shelter  to  a  ship,  as  well  as  the  places  which 
grounding  icebergs  would  make  impracticable  and 
dangerous,  together  with  the  ice  experience  and 
determination  of  Captain  Bartlett,  that  made  it 
possible  four  times  for  the  Roosevelt  successfully 


Scotch  "Aurora" 


Italian  "Stella   i'olare' 


American   "Roosevelt"  British   "Discovery" 

COMPARATIVT     PICTURES   OI     VARIOUS    EXPLORING    SHIPS 


ICE  NAVIGATION  103 

to  navigate  these  channels,  a  feat  which  was  long 
regarded  as  utterly  impossible. 

The  earliest  voyages  into  polar  waters  were 
made  almost  solely  in  the  interests  of  commerce — 
to  discover,  if  possible,  a  short  route  to  China  and 
the  East  Indies.  Keen  and  costly  was  the  rivalry 
among  the  various  European  nations,  and  many 
daring  and  hardy  navigators  were  sent  out  by 
Great  Britain,  Holland,  Russia,  Germany,  Nor- 
way, Sweden,  and  France. 

In  1588,  John  Davis,  following  the  coast  of 
Greenland  from  Cape  Farewell  to  Sanderson 
Hope,  a  distance  of  eight  hundred  miles,  gained 
for  Great  Britain  the  record  of  farthest  north, 
72°  12'. 

Hudson  in  1607  broke  this  record  by  reaching 
80°  23'  N.  Lat.,  and  on  his  return  reported  the 
discovery  of  large  numbers  of  whales  and  wal- 
ruses. As  a  result  the  arctic  circle  became  the 
Mecca  for  the  next  two  centuries  for  hundreds  of 
whaling-ships  and  thousands  of  men  from  North- 
ern countries. 

In  1773,  almost  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
years  later,  Hudson's  record  was  surpassed  by 
the  small  margin  of  twenty-five  miles  by  Phipps, 
and  this  new  record  was  not  bettered  until  1806, 
when  Scoresby,  an  enterprising  British  whaler, 
ventured  to  deviate  from  the  beaten  track  of  the 
whalers  and  reached  81°  30'  N.  Lat. 

Several  attempts  were  made  by  Parry  to  find 


104  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

the  Northwest  Passage,  and  although  he  was  un- 
successful in  this,  the  experience  gained  in  ice- 
work  was  most  valuable  and  marked  a  new  era  in 
polar  exploration.  He  was  the  first  to  suggest  the 
idea  of  a  journey  afoot  from  a  land  base  to  the 
North  Pole. 

After  Parry  came  Eoss,  and  later  Franklin;  but 
it  was  not  until  1850-55  that  the  Northwest  Pass- 
age was  accomplished  by  McClure  on  foot.  Mc- 
Clure  traversed  the  ice  between  his  ship,  the  In- 
vestigator, which  had  entered  the  polar  ocean  via 
Bering  Strait,  and  was  crushed  by  the  ice  in  Bar- 
row Strait,  and  Collinson's  ship,  the  Enterprise, 
in  Melville  Sound,  and  returned  to  England  via 
Lancaster  Sound  and  Davis  Strait.  The  actual 
navigation  of  the  Northwest  Passage  was  effected 
by  Roald  Amundsen,  who  in  1903-06  sailed  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  in  the  Gjoa. 

Subsequently  arctic  navigators  turned  their  at- 
tention to  the  attainment  of  the  North  Pole,  and 
in  1853-55  for  the  first  time  in  America  took  a 
part  in  ice  navigation.  Kane  discovered  and  ex- 
plored the  shores  of  Kane  Basin,  and  outlined  a 
route  to  the  pole,  which  is  now  known  as  the 
American  route. 

Hayes,  who  had  accompanied  Kane,  under- 
took a  later  expedition,  but  did  not  materially  ex- 
tend Kane 's  work. 

In  1871,  Hall,  another  American,  forced  his 
ship,  the  Polaris,  to  a  new  northing  of  82°  11'. 


ICE  NAVIGATION  105 

Four  years  later  Nares  in  the  Alert  attained  83° 
20'  N.  Lat.  These  two  ships  were  the  only  ones 
up  to  this  time  which  had  successfully  negotiated 
the  channels  forming  the  American  gateway  to 
the  pole. 

All  previous  records  for  ice  navigation  in  the 
arctic  regions  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  were 
broken  by  the  Roosevelt,  which  reached  Cape 
Sheridan  in  1905,  and  penetrated  two  miles  be- 
yond it  in  1908.  One  ship  only  has  been  nearer 
the  pole,  the  Fram,  but  this  higher  latitude  was 
attained  not  under  stress  of  her  own  power,  but 
by  drifting  in  the  grip  of  the  ice. 

A  glance  at  the  history  of  north  polar  explora- 
tion will  show  that  it  is  studded  with  crushed  and 
foundering  ships. 

Barents,  in  1594-95,  lost  his  ship  and  his  life, 
his  crew  barely  escaping.  Following  him  came 
Bering,  whose  vessels  were  wrecked,  causing  the 
loss  of  his  life,  and  much  suffering  on  the  part  of 
his  men  before  they  reached  safety  on  the  coast 
of  Kamchatka.  The  Dorothea  of  Franklin's  ex- 
pedition in  1818  was  badly  crushed  in  the  ice ;  in 
the  expedition  of  Parry  and  Lyon  in  1823-24 
Lyon's  vessel  was  nearly  wrecked  on  two  occa- 
sions, and  Parry's  vessel,  the  Fury,  was  actually 
lost ;  Captain  Ross  who  started  out  in  the  Victory 
in  1829,  was  obliged  to  abandon  her.  Franklin's 
two  ships,  the  Erebus  and  Terror,  were  lost.  The 
Assistance,  Pioneer,  Intrepid,  Resolute,  Investi- 


106  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

gator,  were  all  lost  in  the  course  of  the  search  for 
the  Franklin  expedition.  The  Bremen  exploring 
vessel  II ansa  was  wrecked  (1860-70),  and  the 
crew  forced  to  take  to  the  drift  ice  and  later  to 
their  boats.  Hall's  ship,  the  Polaris,  in  1872  was 
caught  in  and  drifted  with  the  ice,  nearly  de- 
stroyed in  a  violent  gale  off  Northumberland 
Island,  and  later  grounded.  In  1874,  Payer  and 
Weyprecht,  leaders  of  the  Austrian  expedition 
which  discovered  Franz-Josef-Land,  were  obliged 
to  abandon  their  ship,  and  with  their  crew,  in  four 
small  boats,  struggled  with  the  ice-pack  for  three 
months  before  they  reached  the  open  sea  on  their 
way  to  safety.  In  1879  the  Jeannette,  under  the 
command  of  DeLong,  was  caught  in  the  ice,  and 
two  years  later  was  crushed  and  sunk,  a  number 
of  the  party,  including  DeLong  himself,  losing 
their  lives. 

Some  of  these  disasters  have  been  the  result  of 
inexperience,  others  have  been  due  to  the  disre- 
gard of  the  first  principles  of  ice  navigation,  and 
still  others  are  directly  attributable  to  the  utter 
unfitness  of  the  ship  for  ice-work.  Striking  ex- 
amples of  the  latter  were  the  Jeannette  and  Po- 
laris. These  ships,  because  of  their  build,  should 
never  have  gone  into  the  ice.  Wall-sided  as  they 
were,  once  caught  between  opposing  fields  of  ice 
there  was  no  escape  for  them,  as  their  shape  made 
it  utterly  impossible  for  them  to  rise  and  escape 
the  deadly  pressure. 


ICE    NAVIGATION    BEFOKE    THE    ADVENT   OF    POWERFUL    STEAMERS 


THE    "ROOSEVELT      BESET    IN     WRANOEL    BAX 


ICE  NAVIGATION  109 

The  difficulties  of  ice  navigation  increase  with 
higher  latitude.  Any  vessel  navigating  in  polar 
waters  may  at  any  time  be  crushed  so  suddenly 
that  nothing  below  can  be  saved.  At  Etah  I  have 
always  made  pre]  mint  ions  for  such  an  emergency, 
and  had  all  the  pemmican,  tea,  coffee,  biscuits, 
sugar,  oil,  ammunition, — in  fact,  all  the  essentials 
necessary  to  sustain  life  and  health, — placed  on 
deck  close  to  the  rail,  where  it  could  easily  bo 
thrown  off  to  the  ice.  In  addition  to  this,  the 
whale-boats,  fully  equipped  for  a  week  or  ten- 
days'  voyage,  were  ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to 
be  lowered.  Each  boat,  beside  the  required  com- 
plement of  oars,  oar-locks,  boat-hooks,  a  liquid 
compass,  and  a  bailer,  contained  pemmican,  con- 
veniently packed  in  six-pound  tins;  biscuits,  fifty 
pounds;  coffee,  ten  pounds;  compressed  tea,  five 
pounds;  sugar,  ten  pounds;  condensed  milk,  ten 
cans;  salt;  oil,  five  gallons;  a  small  oil-stove; 
one  rifle  and  one  hundred  cartridges;  one  shot- 
gun and  fifty  shells;  one  box  of  matches  in  a 
tightly-corked  bottle;  one  hatchet;  knives;  a  can- 
opener;  needles,  and  thread;  and  medical  sup- 
plies consisting  of  quinine,  astringent,  bandages, 
cotton,  gauze,  boracic  acid,  dusting  powder,  nee- 
dles, catgut,  and  liniment.  And  every  member  of 
the  party,  including  the  Eskimos,  had  a  small  bun- 
dle of  extra  clothing  packed,  and  stood  ready  to 
leave  the  ship  immediately  after  throwing  off  the 
supplies  and  lowering  the  boats. 


110  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

The  heavy  pack-ice  which  surges  down  Smith 
Sound  past  Littleton  Island  usually  makes  it  al- 
most impossible  to  follow  the  coast  of  Greenland 
northward,  and  on  leaving  Etah  it  is  necessary  to 
cross  to  Cape  Sabine,  on  the  Ellcsmere  Land 
side. 

As  a  rule,  the  trip  from  Etah  to  Cape  Sabine 
presents  no  particular  difficulty  to  a  ship  like  the 
Roosevelt,  and  it  may  at  times  be  made  in  con- 
tinuous open  water. 

From  Cape  Sabine  the  most  practical  course 
lies  along  the  west  shore,  where  at  ebb-tide  a  navi- 
gable lane  of  water  is  often  to  be  found  between 
the  shore  ice  and  the  moving  pack.  In  1905, 
after  leaving  Cape  Sabine  and  working  northward 
along  the  west  shore  past  Bache  Peninsula  and 
Hayes  Point,  we  were  forced  to  seek  shelter  in 
Maury  Bay  to  avoid  the  heavy  ice  advancing 
swiftly  before  a  stiff  northerly  wind.  By  keep- 
ing a  close  watch  on  the  ice  and  availing  our- 
selves of  every  opportunity  to  advance,  we  fol- 
lowed the  shore-line  up  past  Scoresby  Bay  and 
Richardson  Bay.  Two  attempts  to  reach  Cape 
Joseph  Goode  failed,  each  time  the  Roosevelt  be- 
ing driven  back  to  Cape  Wilkes  by  the  ice-pack. 
Rawlings  Bay  was  packed  with  ice,  and  conditions 
to  the  northward,  on  the  Grinnell  Land  side,  alto- 
gether so  unfavorable,  that  I  determined  to  cross 
Kennedy  Channel  and  proceed  northward  on  the 
Greenland  side,  previous  experience  in  this  re- 


ICE  NAVIGATION  111 

gion  having  led  me  to  believe  that  in  most  seasons 
Kennedy  and  Kobeson  channels  could  be  more  eas- 
ily traversed  on  the  Greenland  side  than  on  the 
Grinnell  Land  side. 

After  a  long,  hard  struggle  we  reached  the 
loose  ice  off  Cape  Calhoun,  and  headed  north  from 
Crozier  and  Franklin  islands.  Finding  the  chan- 
nel which  lies  between  Franklin  Island  and  Cape 
Constitution  impracticable,  we  followed  the  main 
channel  close  to  Franklin  Island. 

As  far  as  Joe  Island  it  was  fairly  easy  sailing 
as  polar  navigation  goes.  Making  the  Roosevelt 
fast  to  the  ice-foot  here,  a  trip  to  the  summit  of 
the  island  showed  the  Greenland  side  of  Hall  Ba- 
sin as  far  as  Cape  Lupton,  and  possibly  up  to  Cape 
Sumner,  free  from  ice,  while  the  Grinnell  Land 
coast  was  filled  with  heavy  ice,  making  navigation 
out  of  the  question.  Just  beyond  Cape  Lupton, 
while  breaking  a  way  through  a  small  gap  in  the 
ice,  a  quick  change  in  the  current,  which  runs  very 
swiftly  in  this  deep  and  narrow  channel,  forced 
the  ice-floes  together  about  the  Roosevelt,  smash- 
ing her  up  against  and  along  the  ice-foot.  In 
less  time  than  it  takes  to  describe,  it  twisted  the 
back  of  her  rudder,  snapped  her  tiller-rods,  almost 
put  her  steering-gear  out  of  commission  perma- 
nently, and  necessitated  a  stop  of  several  days  at 
Newman  Bay  to  make  repairs. 

We  had  hoped  that  a  lead  across  Robeson  Chan- 
nel to  the  neighborhood  of  Cape  Union  would 


112  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

make  the  return  to  the  west  side  of  the  channel 
comparatively  easy,  but  in  this  we  were  disap- 
pointed. 

In  1908  the  route  of  the  Roosevelt  from  Cape 
Etah  to  Sabine  and  up  the  west  coast  of  Kane 
Basin,  past  Victoria  Head,  was  virtually  the  same 
as  in  1905.  This  year,  however,  we  found  Ken- 
nedy Channel  almost  free  from  ice,  and  with  no 
fog  to  delay,  the  Roosevelt  steamed  her  way  up 
the  center  of  it,  and  broke  all  previous  records 
by  navigating  the  channel's  one  hundred  miles  of 
length  in  one  day. 

Before  reaching  Robeson  Channel  we  encoun- 
tered ice  and  fog,  and  were  once  driven  over  to 
the  east  coast  at  Thank  God  Harbor  in  an  attempt 
to  find  an  opening  in  the  pack.  With  this  excep- 
tion the  Grinnell  Land  and  Grant  Land  coasts  of 
the  channels  were  found  practicable  from  Cape 
Sabine  to  Cape  Sheridan. 

On  the  return  voyage  from  Cape  Sheridan  to 
Etah  in  1908  I  determined  to  try  out  a  new  route 
in  these  narrow  and  ice-filled  channels.  Instead 
of  hugging  the  shore,  the  Roosevelt,  on  reaching 
Cape  Union,  was  deliberately  driven  out  into  the 
pack-ice  in  order  to  work  her  way  down  the  center 
of  Robeson  and  Kennedy  Channels.  For  a  ship 
not  specially  built  for  ice-work  such  a  course 
would  be  almost  certain  to  result  in  disaster,  but 
for  one  of  the  Roosevelt  type,  and  in  the  hands 
of  experienced  ice-navigators,  I  consider  this  by 


ICE  NAVIGATION  118 

far  the  preferable  return  route.  It  is  also  the 
quickest  route,  the  trip  from  Cape  Sheridan  to 
Cape  Sabine  taking  only  twenty-three  days,  or 
twenty-three  days  less  time  than  by  the  old  route 
in  1906. 

The  navigation  of  polar  waters  demands  inces- 
sant watchfulness  and  instant  readiness  even 
under  apparently  the  most  favorable  conditions. 
During  the  passage  of  Kennedy  and  Robeson 
Channels  Bartlett  was  nearly  always  in  the  crow's- 
nest,  and  while  I  had  almost  unbounded  faith  in  his 
judgment,  I  spent  much  of  the  time  in  the  rigging 
below  the  crow's-nest,  watching  the  ice  ahead,  and 
in  the  worst  places  often  relieving  Bartlett  of  too 
great  a  load  of  responsibility  by  backing  up  his 
judgment  with  my  own  views.  The  periods  of 
night  at  such  times  might  as  well  not  have  been, 
for  it  is  possible  to  get  only  snatches  of  sleep  in 
the  short  times  when  nothing  else  remains  to  be 
done,  and  Bartlett  and  I  have  spent  days  and 
even  weeks  at  a  time  in  these  regions  without 
thinking  of  taking  our  clothes  off  to  sleep. 

The  chief  engineer,  like  his  assistants,  stood  his 
eight-  or  twelve-hour  watch,  and  was  almost  al- 
ways to  be  found  in  the  engine-room  when  the 
Roosevelt  was  passing  through  dangerous  places ; 
for  any  slip  in  the  machinery  at  a  critical  time 
would  have  resulted  in  the  loss  of  the  ship. 

The  Roosevelt  has  undoubtedly  deliberately 
struck  heavier  blows  while  fighting  ice  than  any 


114-  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

other  ship  would  dare  to  attempt.  Many  times 
she  has  reared  and  risen  on  a  steel  blue  mass  of 
old  floe-ice  till  I  was  reminded  of  a  hunter  rising 
to  a  stone  wall.  Repeated  blows  of  her  steel  stem 
in  the  same  spot  have  at  times  split  pieces  of 
floes,  or  the  projecting  tongue  of  a  big  floe  which 
barred  our  passage,  of  almost  incredible  thick- 
ness just  as  a  small  hand  ice-pick,  if  properly 
used,  will  split  a  large  cake  of  ice. 

In  loose  ice  or  in  one  season's  ice  or  in  any  kind 
of  ice  in  the  open  sea  a  ship  like  the  Roosevelt 
may  be  regarded  as  immune. 

Really  serious  conditions  are  those  met  in 
threading  a  way  through  a  succession  of  big  floes 
of  heavy  ice  in  contracted  channels  where  the  tides 
run  rapidly,  and  where  the  impingement  of  one 
floe  against  an  unyielding  headland  may  cause  a 
jam  extending  for  miles,  the  floes  coming  together 
like  the  cars  of  a  long  freight  train  in  a  head-on 
collision. 

Under  these  conditions  the  movements  of  the 
floes  are  watched  with  hawk  eyes,  and  if  it  is  seen 
that  the  ship  is  going  to  be  caught  between  two 
of  the  fields,  she  is  made  fast  in  a  concavity  in  the 
edge  of  one  floe  or  the  other,  with  a  point  of  ice 
ahead  and  astern  to  take  the  brunt  of  the  pres- 
sure. Then,  if  there  is  time  and  the  floes  are  very 
heavy,  the  crew  go  out  onto  the  ice  with  pick-axes 
and  bevel  down  the  edge  of  the  floe  against  the 
ship's  side  to  assist  her  in  rising. 


ICE  NAVIGATION  115 

This  beveling  of  the  edge  of  the  ice  next  to  the 
ship's  side  was  always  done  when  the  Roosevelt 
was  made  fast  against  the  face  of  the  ice-foot  in 
an  exposed  position.  Sometimes  charges  of  dyna- 
lnite  in  line  a  few  yards  away  from  the  ship  will 
shatter  the  edge  of  the  floe  and  form  a  cushion  of 
smaller  pieces  for  the  ship  to  be  forced  against. 

With  skill  and  good  judgment  it  is  often  pos- 
sible to  drive  the  ship  into  a  sheltered  pool  where 
three  floes  coming  together  form  a  deadlock,  ex- 
pending their  force  against  each  other  while  the 
ship  lies  in  a  little  ice-locked  pool  of  water  as  in 
a  natural  harbor.  Sometimes  this  harbor  opens 
with  change  of  the  tide.  Often  it  grows  smaller 
and  smaller  till  it  disappears;  but  time  is  thus 
given  to  make  the  ship  secure,  and  sometimes,  by 
placing  dynamite  to  smash  off  a  corner  and  having 
full  steam  on  to  jump  the  ship  through  before  the 
floes  close  again,  escape  is  effected. 

The  Roosevelt's  most  serious  times  were  at  the 
northern  entrance  to  Kennedy  Channel,  where  at 
the  neck  of  the  funnel  there  is  a  grinding  hell  of 
great  ice-fields  crowding  one  another  on  the  rush 
of  the  spring-tides  in  their  eagerness  to  get  south. 
A  memorable  instance  was  her  thirty-five-hour 
battle  across  the  channel  from  Cape  Sumner 
to  Wrangel  Bay  August,  1905,  a  distance  of  fif- 
teen miles. 

Two  crucial  situations  are  when,  with  the  un- 
broken face  of  a  big  floe  on  one  side,  the  point  or 


116  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

corner  of  another  on  the  other  side  catches  the 
ship.  In  this  situation,  if  the  ship  does  not  rise, 
she  is  lost.  The  other  is  when  a  big  field,  with  the 
weight  and  pressure  of  miles  of  ice  behind  it, 
comes  slowly  rotating  along  the  shore  with  resist- 
less force.  Every  effort  should  be  made  to  get 
outside  of  such  a  floe.  If  this  is  impossible,  then 
the  ship  should  be  driven  into  a  niche  of  the  ice- 
foot, if  possible  in  the  lee  of  some  stream  delta, 
made  fast  with  every  line,  and  the  edge  of  the  ice- 
foot abreast  of  the  ship  beveled  down  as  low  as 
possible  to  facilitate  the  ship's  rising  on  it. 

The  Roosevelt  had  two  or  three  very  close  calls 
of  this  kind  on  her  upward  voyages,  the  ice  press- 
ing up  over  the  ice-foot  and  piling  up  on  the 
cliffs  a  few  hundred  yards  ahead  or  astern  of 
her.  I  recall  one  instance  where  with  the  glasses 
I  saw  from  the  crow's-nest  huge  ice-blocks  climb 
fifty  feet  up  the  cliffs  at  a  point  a  mile  or  so 
ahead  of  us  at  the  very  place  where  some  hours 
earlier  I  had  thought  of  making  the  Roosevelt 
fast  to  await  the  turn  of  the  tide.  Fortunately 
I  had  decided  to  take  no  chances,  and  had  re- 
treated a  mile  or  so  to  a  safer  position. 

There  is  one  phenomenon  in  this  region  which 
is  certain  to  cause  the.  leader  of  an  expedition 
temporary  palpitation  of  the  heart  the  first 
time  it  occurs.  When  the  ice-floes  come  together, 
and  the  edges  crush  and  pile  up  in  great  ridges  of 
ice-blocks,  other  pieces  of  ice  are  forced  down,  and 


1  hi.    "1M">I.\  Ml"    SI  I    wiiM.     .  HROI  ...l     I  ..i      !•  •    PAl  K 


1 


FLO)     l  .    i   \;iY    FRANKLIN    BA"5    THAT    III   ni>    THE      BOOSE- 

vi:i  i  "   m  \i:i.i    t  ii  \i:  01    w  J 1 1  a 


ICE  NAVIGATION  119 

in  the  deeper  portions  of  Kennedy  Channel  large 
granite-like  blocks  are  held  down  undoubtedly 
one  hundred  or  more  feet  below  the  water.  When 
the  ice  pressure  relaxes,  these  start  for  the  sur- 
face, gathering  momentum,  as  they  rise,  and  leap 
half  their  bigness  above  water,  then  settle  back. 

Two  or  three  times  blocks  of  this  kind  on  their 
way  up  struck  the  bottom  of  the  Roosevelt  a  re- 
sounding thump  just  as  she  was  released  from  the 
strain  of  ice  pressure  and  had  settled  back  into 
the  water.  The  shock  is  different  from  the  tense 
vibrations  of  ice  pressure  or  the  crash  of  butting 
ice  at  full  speed,  or  the  grinding  crunch  of  run- 
ning on  a  rock.  It  is  an  upward  shock  as  from 
the  blow  of  a  great  hammer,  that  jars  every  tim- 
ber in  the  ship.  Its  first  occurrence  usually 
forces  the  involuntary  exclamation,  ' '  My  God ! 
what  has  happened  now?"  After  the  first  time, 
one  is  always  ready  for  it,  and  so  is  not  disturbed. 

No  attempt  should  ever  be  made  to  anchor  in 
this  kind  of  navigation  unless  one  wishes  to  pre- 
sent the  ice  deities  with  his  anchor  and  much  or 
all  of  his  cable. 

Just  as  sure  as  the  anchor  is  put  down  a  big 
floe  will  come  along  and  squat  on  it ;  then  there  is 
nothing  to  do  but  unshackle  your  cable  and  let  it 
go.  It  cost  me  two  anchors  and  two  cables  one 
summer's  trip  to  learn  this  lesson  thoroughly. 
On  another  voyage  in  a  usually  safe  position  a 
big  floe  compelled  me  to  drop  an  anchor  and  all  of 


120  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

its  cable,  though  I  recovered  it  the  next  season. 

Whenever  the  ship  is  to  be  made  fast,  it  should 
be  done  with  lines  and  hawsers  made  fast  to  ice 
pinnacles,  holes  in  the  ice,  or  ice  anchors. 

It  is  well  also  to  bring  the  end  of  line  or  hawser 
on  board,  so  that  it  can  be  cast  loose  without  send- 
ing a  man  off  the  ship.  Movements  of  ship  and 
ice  are  sometimes  too  rapid  to  risk  a  man. 

To  a  ship  built  as  sturdily  as  the  Roosevelt, 
with  no  greater  speed  and  with  a  lively  helm,  ice- 
bergs are  no  bugbear.  During  the  upward  voy- 
age it  is  continuous  daylight,  so  that  even  in  thick 
weather  there  should  be  no  difficulty,  with  ordi- 
nary care,  in  detecting  the  proximity  of  bergs 
along  the  Labrador  coast  and  in  Greenland 
waters  in  time  to  avoid  them.  North  of  Kane 
Basin  real  icebergs  are  rarely  seen,  and  these 
only  small  ones.  In  the  polar  ocean  there  is 
nothing  that  can  be  dignified  by  the  name.  On 
the  return  voyage,  in  the  long,  dark  nights  and 
short,  dull  days  of  late  autumn,  in  Melville  Bay, 
Davis  Straits,  and  along  the  Labrador  coast,  they 
compel  a  careful  lookout.  With  all  lights  shut 
off,  a  reliable  man  way  forward,  and  two  officers 
on  the  bridge,  we  never  had  serious  trouble  even 
in  the  darkest  nights  in  detecting  the  "loom"  of 
a  berg  in  time  to  shift  the  wheel  and  avoid  it. 
"Growlers" — that  is,  translucent  fragments  of 
bergs  as  hard  as  granite,  of  the  same  color  as  the 
water,  and  just  barely  floating — are  the  kind  of 


ICE  NAVIGATION  121 

ice  that  succeeds  most  completely  in  rendering  it- 
self invisible.  My  ships  have  humped  these  more 
than  once  in  brilliantly  clear  weather,  with  no 

other  ice  in  sight  and  the  lookout  gone  below. 

I  recall  coming  home  across  Melville  Bay  in  one 
of  my  earlier  auxiliary  ships.  It  was  a  brilliant 
moonlit  September  night,  not  a  piece  of  ice  in 
sight  anywhere,  a  fresh  following  breeze,  and  the 
ship  making  about  ten  knots.  It  was  the  mate's 
watch,  and  the  other  officers  and  members  of  the 
expedition  were  below  in  the  cabin  when  suddenly 
there  was  a  terrific  bump.  The  ship  seemed  to 
stop  completely  for  an  instant;  then,  after  a 
vicious  lurch  or  two,  went  on  her  way.  Every 
one  in  the  cabin  except  the  captain  went  in  a  mess 
against  the  bottom  of  the  forward  bulkhead.  The 
captain,  sitting  on  the  after  locker,  was  nearly  cut 
in  two  against  the  cabin  table,  and  went  about  for 
a  day  or  two  like  a  man  who  had  been  kicked 
below  the  belt  by  an  army  mule.  We  had  made 
a  bull's-eye  shot  at  what  appeared  to  be  the  only 
growTler  in  the  bay.  Of  course  these  growlers  are 
not  a  source  of  danger  to  a  ship  like  the  Roose- 
velt, though  they  would  be  to  a  weaker  ship. 

I  have  thought,  if  I  should  go  north  again,  that 
I  would  try  a  search-light  for  the  autumn  return 
voyage.  In  thick  fog,  of  course,  such  a  light 
wrould  be  of  little  or  no  use. 

A  trick  that  is  sometimes  of  considerable  value 
in  squeezing  through  the  ice  is  to  use  the  ship  as 


122  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

a  big  pinch  bar  to  separate  two  cakes  of  ice. 
"With  the  stem  forced  into  the  crack  between  the 
cakes,  the  engines  are  driven  ahead  full  speed  and 
the  wheel  thrown  hard  over  alternately  to  port 
and  starboard.  In  this  way  the  bows  are  grad- 
ually forced  farther  and  farther  in  until  the  ice 
has  been  pried  apart,  and  the  ship  squeezes 
through. 

Streams  of  ice  in  the  open  sea  are  a  pronounced 
comfort  in  heavy  weather.  If  the  ship  is  on  the 
lee  side,  she  can  steam  along  in  smooth  water, 
with  the  wind  blowing  a  howling  gale,  the  ice  act- 
ing as  a  breakwater.  If  she  is  on  the  weather 
side,  a  ship  like  the  Roosevelt  can  force  her  way 
into  the  pack  and  lie  in  comfort.  This  is  often  a 
distinct  help  with  a  deeply  loaded  ship  on  the  up- 
ward voyage. 

In  the  one  season's  ice  of  Melville  Bay  a  ship 
may  often  force  her  way  through  mile  after  mile 
by  continuous  repeated  blows  like  a  drill  or  well- 
borer,  smashing  the  ice  into  small  pieces  for  some 
feet  or  yards  at  every  blow.  But  once  past  Cape 
Sabine  there  is  no  more  of  this.  Then  it  needs 
skill  as  well  as  power,  and  progress  is  a  matter 
of  dodging,  turning,  squeezing,  twisting,  rushing 
along  a  narrow  lane  of  water  and  striking  sledge- 
hammer blows  at  points  or  masses  of  blue 
granite ;  then,  when  further  progress  is  absolutely 
impossible,  banking  fires  to  save  coal  and  waiting 
for  the  next  round. 


ICE  NAVIGATION  125 

It  needs  incessant  watching  of  every  move  of 
an  enemy  with  a  myriad  tricks  and  resources,  and 
then  instant  decision, — "pep,"  as  my  you  un- 
friend Borup  would  have  put  it, — and  a  little 
courage. 

In  all  my  experiences  I  recall  nothing  more  ex- 
citing than  the  thrill,  the  crash,  the  shock  of  hurl- 
ing the  Roosevelt,  a  fifteen-huiidred-ton  battering- 
ram,  at  the  ice  to  smash  a  way  through;  or  the 
tension  of  the  moments  when,  caught  in  the  re- 
sistless grip  of  two  great  ice-fields,  I  have  stood 
on  the  bridge  and  seen  the  deck  amidships  bulge 
upward  and  the  rigging  slacken  with  the  compres- 
sion of  the  sides ;  or  have  listened  to  the  crackling 
fusillade  of  reports,  like  an  infantry  engagement, 
from  the  hold,  and  felt  the  quivering  of  the  whole 
ship  like  a  mighty  bowstring,  till  she  leaped  up- 
ward, free  of  the  death-jaws,  and  the  ice  in  snarl- 
ing turmoil  met  beneath  her  keel  and  expended  its 
fury  upon  itself. 

Again  I  can  see  Bartlett  up  in  the  crow's-nest, 
at  the  head  of  the  swaying  mast,  jumping  up  and 
down  like  a  mad  man,  swearing,  shouting  to  the 
ship,  exhorting  it  like  a  coach  with  his  man  in  the 
ring.  Ah,  the  vibrating  bigness  of  it !  How  fine 
it  would  seem  to  be  at  it  again ! 


CHAPTER  V 

WINTER   QUARTERS 

TTIE  matter  of  winter  quarters  is  one  of  pro- 
nounced importance  to  polar  travelers, 
ranking  second  only  to  the  question  of  an  abun- 
dant supply  of  food.  Warmth,  dryness,  and 
abundance  of  light  are  the  great  desiderata.  A 
knowledge  of  Eskimo  methods  of  house-building, 
combined  with  a  little  ingenuity,  enables  these 
needs  to  be  secured  with  few  and  simple  mate- 
rials. 

In  an  experience  extending  over  twenty-three 
years  I  have  had  occasion  to  prepare  winter  quar- 
ters afloat  and  ashore  for  parties  of  from  three 
up.  Many  ideas  were  tried  out,  and  most  of  them 
discarded  as  useless.  Some  were  found  of  value, 
and  utilizing  these,  I  have  introduced  on  different 
expeditions,  and  have  tried  out  with  most  gratify- 
ing results,  a  new  design  for  winter  quarters  the 
general  principles  of  which  I  believe  will  be  of 
value  to  future  explorers  in  these  regions.  After 
I  had  had  opportunities  to  study  Eskimo  princi- 
ples and  methods  of  house-building  I  gained  new 
points,  and  could  easily  have  adopted  their  prac- 
tice in  toto.    With  the  addition  of  some  materials 

126 


WINTER  QUART KRS  127 

of  civilization,  it  was  possible,  however,  to  im- 
prove upon  their  results.  Now,  given  a  tent,  a 
pickax,  and  a  shovel,  a  bale  of  pressed  hay,  a 
lamp,  a  few  gallons  of  oil,  and  the  wood  of  the 
cases  in  which  my  provisions  were  packed,  I  could 
make  a  winter  habitation  for  from  two  to  six  men 
in  which  they  would  be  just  as  comfortable  as  at 
home. 

If  the  Eskimos,  with  their  crude  intelligence 
and  almost  utter  lack  of  materials,  can  construct 
comfortable  habitations  to  protect  them  and  their 
children  through  the  bitter,  months-long  winter 
night,  surely  the  white  man,  with  his  superior  in- 
telligence and  limitless  range  of  material,  should 
be  able  to  do  as  well. 

Headquarters  for  my  expedition  of  1891-93 
were  established  in  McCormick  Bay,  where  I  was 
sure  of  securing  an  abundance  of  fresh  meat  for 
my  party  of  seven.  The  site  for  our  winter  home 
was  selected  only  after  most  careful  considera- 
tion. It  was  essential  that  it  be  on  land  high 
enough  to  insure  dryness;  that  it  be  sheltered 
from  strong  winds,  and  yet  get  as  much  sunlight 
as  possible.  It  should  also  be  free  from  danger 
of  snow  or  rock  slides  and  from  spring  floods, 
and  not  too  far  from  the  shore. 

A  grassy  knoll  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  bay 
about  a  hundred  feet  from  the  water 's-edge  was 
finally  decided  upon  as  meeting  most  fully  our  re- 
quirements.    A  brook  on  each  side  made  a  good 


128  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

water-supply  certain.  A  hundred  feet  back  of 
the  house  were  brown  cliffs,  which  had  the  disad- 
vantage of  cutting  off  the  sun  in  the  early  spring 
and  late  autumn ;  but  they  served  as  a  protection 
against  the  winds,  and  we  felt  this  was  the  best 
we  could  do. 

All  material  for  the  house  was  of  course  taken 
north  with  us,  and  on  the  way  up  was  cut 
and  fitted,  ready  to  nail  together  and  set  up  at 
once  upon  our  arrival. 

Eed  Cliff  House,  when  finally  completed,  was  a 
sort  of  house  within  a  house,  there  being  an  inner 
frame  that  was  separated  from  an  outer  frame  by 
an  air  space  ranging  from  ten  inches  on  the  sides 
to  something  over  three  feet  in  the  middle  of  the 
roof.  A  sheathing  of  closely  joined  boards  and 
two  layers  of  tarred  paper  on  the  outside  of  the 
outer  framework  made  it  air-tight,  while  the 
inner  house  was  made  of  heavy  boards,  and  ren- 
dered air-tight  by  a  coating  of  heavy  brown 
paper. 

The  interior  was  twenty-one  feet  long,  twelve 
feet  wide,  and  eight  feet  high,  and  was  divided  into 
two  rooms.  A  wall  was  constructed  all  the  way 
around  the  house,  leaving  a  passageway  of  four 
feet  between.  For  the  lower  portion  of  this  wall, 
empty  barrels,  stones,  and  turf  were  used,  while 
wooden  boxes  containing  canned  supplies,  piled 
in  regular  courses   on  top   of  this   foundation, 


COMPLETE  POLAK    WINTER   HOUSE 

Before  banking   in    with   snow 


e 


A    SCENE    Al     111   BBABDVILLE    82       30'    X.    LAT. 

One  of  the  \«<\   houses   in    winter 


WINTER  QUARTERS  131 

formed  the  upper  portion  of  the  wall.  I  had  the 
supply  boxes  made  the  same  width  and  depth,  but 
of  different  lengths,  specially  for  this  purpose. 
A  roof  of  canvas  extending  from  the  house  to  the 
wall  made  a  closed-in  corridor,  which  we  used  as 
a  storeroom.  The  boxes  were  stacked  so  that  the 
covers  could  be  opened  from  the  inside,  making 
their  contents  as  easily  accessible  as  if  they  were 
on  pantry-shelves.  This  corridor  was  quite  large 
enough  to  serve  as  a  workroom,  and  here  we  made 
our  sledges  and  other  equipment  necessary  for 
sledge-journeys.  When  the  snow  came,  a  long 
snow  entrance  to  the  corridor  was  constructed; 
the  roof  was  covered  with  a  thick  blanket  of  it, 
and  the  walls  were  banked,  still  further  to  protect 
us  from  the  wintry  blasts. 

For  our  stove  a  pit  was  dug  in  the  ground,  so 
that  the  fire-box  came  below  the  level  of  the  floor, 
thus  insuring  the  warmth  of  air  even  down  to  the 
floor  level,  and  lessening  the  danger  of  fire.  To 
carry  the  stovepipe  out  so  that  it  would  not  come 
into  contact  with  the  woodwork,  we  ran  it  through 
a  double  window  the  glass  of  which  had  been  re- 
placed with  sheets  of  tin.  Air-shafts  were  suit- 
ably arranged  for  carrying  off  moisture  and  bad 
air. 

This  done,  heavy  Indian  blankets  of  bright  red, 
adding  warmth  and  color  to  the  interior,  were 
used  to  cover  the  walls  and  ceiling;  bunks  were 


132  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

built  along  the  wall ;  and  with  a  few  chairs  and  a 
table,  a  library,  and  our  cooking-utensils,  our 
home  was  ready  for  occupancy. 

My  expedition  of  1893-95  had  its  headquarters 
at  the  head  of  Bowdoin  Bay  a  few  miles  north  of 
Red  Cliff.  Our  home  here  was  to  accommodate 
a  party  of  fourteen,  just  twice  as  many  as  were 
housed  at  Red  Cliff,  and  consequently  had  to  be 
made  much  larger  than  our  first  winter  home. 
Anniversary  Lodge,  as  this  later  came  to  be 
called,  was  built  on  the  same  general  plan  as  Red 
Cliff  House,  with  an  inner  air-tight  shell  sep- 
arated from  an  outer  air-tight  shell  by  an  air 
space  from  one  to  three  feet  in  width.  The  roof 
was  almost  flat,  and  a  closed-in  corridor  ranging 
from  four  to  six  feet  in  width,  and  with  a  nearly 
flat  roof,  surrounded  the  whole  building.  The 
outer  wall  of  this  was  likewise  made  of  boxes 
filled  with  supplies,  and  a  covering  of  snow  was 
used  to  protect  it  from  winter  weather.  The  floor 
was  double,  tongued  and  grooved,  and  lined  with 
tarred  paper.  The  inner  and  outer  sheathing 
were  also  tongued  and  grooved,  the  former  lined 
with  blankets  and  felt,  the  latter  covered  inside 
and  outside  with  tarred  paper.  The  outer  joints 
were  covered  with  battens. 

The  house  was  divided  into  four  rooms,  the  cen- 
tral part  of  it,  fourteen  feet  long,  nine  feet  wide, 
and  eight  feet  high  being  partitioned  off  to  serve 
as  kitchen  and  dining-room  while  two  end  rooms 


WINTER  QUARTERS  133 

opening  from  it  were  used  for  sleeping-quarters. 

A  window  three  feet  high  extruded  across  the 
entire  front  of  the  main  part  of  the  house,  and 
each  sleeping-room  had  a  window,  protected  by  a 
storm-window,  with  an  overhead  Bash  to  prolong 
the  arctic  day  as  long  as  possible.  During  the 
arctic  night  this  sash  was  covered  with  hay.  In 
addition  to  this  a  sky-light  was  built  in  the  roof 
to  catch  the  last  rays  of  the  departing  sun,  and 
during  the  winter  it  was  covered  with  hay  and  a 
blanket  of  snow. 

During  the  winter  of  1894-95  my  party  was  re- 
duced to  three  members,  including  myself,  and 
the  winter  quarters  was  modified  to  meet  our  re- 
quirements. 

The  central  room  was  selected  for  our  use.  The 
partition  between  the  kitchen  and  the  dining- 
room  was  taken  down,  and  a  small  stove  set  up  in 
the  middle  of  the  forward  part  of  the  room.  The 
stovepipe  was  carried  out  through  one  of  the  ven- 
tilator-shafts, and  carefully  wrapped  in  asbestos 
to  prevent  its  burning  the  woodwork.  The  table 
was  cut  down  to  one-half  its  original  size  to  meet 
our  needs,  and  a  wide  bench  extending  the  whole 
width  of  the  room  was  built  under  the  windows. 
Covered  with  a  large  bearskin,  it  was  used  as  a 
seat  in  the  daytime,  and  at  night  I  slept  on  it. 

The  other  two  members  of  my  party  slept  in  the 
rear  of  the  room.  A  platform  was  built  three 
feet  from  the  floor,  with  a  distance  of  six  feet  be- 


134  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

tween  it  and  the  back  wall.  Two  cots  were  placed 
with  their  heads  resting  on  the  platform  and  their 
feet  supported  by  cleats  nailed  to  the  rear  wall. 
This  arrangement  is  similar  to  the  Eskimo 
method,  giving  the  occupants  a  good  circulation 
of  air  as  well  as  lifting  them  out  of  the  low  tem- 
perature and  drafts  near  the  floor.  These  beds 
as  well  as  my  own  were  fitted  with  blanket  cur- 
tains. Shelves  were  built  under  the  bed  platform 
and  near  the  stove  to  hold  our  current  supplies 
of  coffee,  flour,  etc.,  and  the  space  back  of  them 
was  utilized  for  storage  purposes. 

A  closet  for  dishes  and  books  and  another  for 
medicines  were  built  on  the  east  wall  of  the  room, 
while  along  the  west  side  was  our  gun-rack,  con- 
taining shot-guns,  repeaters,  carbines,  and  a  Daly 
three-barrel  gun.  A  clock,  chronometers,  barom- 
eters, barograph,  etc.,  were  hung  above  the  gun- 
rack.  A  bird-net  was  suspended  from  the  ceiling 
for  drying  out  grass,  which  we  used  in  the  bottom 
of  our  kamiks,  and  three  barrel-hoops  were 
placed  about  the  stovepipe  at  the  top  of  the  room 
for  drying  our  stockings,  kamiks,  mittens,  and 
other  articles  of  clothing. 

The  walls  and  ceiling  of  the  room  were  deco- 
rated with  magazine  pictures,  which  not  only  cov- 
ered the  cracks,  but  made  the  room  brighter  and 
more  cheerful.  A  large  ten-gallon  can  served  as 
a  water-tank,  and  a  pail  for  our  coal  and  a  mo- 


WINTER  QUARTERS  135 

lasses-keg  chair  completed  the  furniture  of  our 
living-  and  Bleeping-room. 

In  the  west  room  we  kept  our  furs,  clothing, 
and  part  of  our  equipment,  while  the  easl  room 
was  used  for  a  general  storeroom  and  workroom. 
In  one  end  of  it  wTas  our  coal-bin,  a  barrel  of 
sugar,  and  one  of  biscuit.  The  room  was  heated 
by  a  small  stove,  was  furnished  with  a  table  and 
Eskimo  lamp  and  a  wide  bench  covered  with 
skins,  which  served  as  a  seat  for  our  Eskimo  seam- 
stresses, who  made  all  our  fur  clothing  in  this 
room.  Our  sledges  and  tent  also  were  con- 
structed here,  and  walrus  meat  was  cut  up  and 
packed  for  the  sledge-trips,  so  that  the  room  was 
usually  full  of  happy,  noisy  natives. 

Most  of  the  wall  surrounding  the  house  had 
been  emptied  of  supplies  during  the  previous 
year,  and  the  empty  boxes  and  barrels  used  for 
fuel.  Now  we  had  to  find  a  new  way  to  protect 
our  room  from  the  cold.  Finally  we  dried  thor- 
oughly all  our  baled  hay,  and  filled  the  spaces  be- 
tween the  inner  and  outer  framework  of  the  house 
with  it.  We  also  reinforced  the  wall  between 
our  living-room  and  the  east  room  by  a  wall  of 
hay  two  and  a  half  feet  in  thickness  from  the  floor 
clear  to  the  ceiling,  finishing  it  with  a  small  ves- 
tibule with  double  doors.  The  wall  between  our 
room  and  the  west  room  we  packed  with  furs. 
Outside  protection  was  secured  by  placing  four 


136  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

large  biscuit-casks  along  the  side  of  the  house 
under  the  windows  of  our  room.  Their  tops  came 
even  with  the  window-sills,  and  hay  was  packed 
in  the  spaces  between  them  and  the  house.  When 
the  snow  came,  everything  was  banked  in  snow 
three  or  four  feet  deep,  a  wall  of  snow-blocks  was 
built  along  the  east  side  of  the  house,  a  snow  en- 
trance erected,  and  we  wTere  snugly  housed  for 
the  long  winter  night. 

In  these  expeditions  I  gained  a  fairly  thorough 
knowledge  of  Eskimo  methods  and  principles  of 
house-building,  and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  give 
here  my  description  from  "Northward  Over  the 
Great  Ice"  of  their  winter  igloos: 

These  igloos  vary  in  size,  from  nine  to  fourteen  feet  in 
length  inside,  and  occasionally  two,  more  rarely  three,  are 
built  close  together,  the  party  wall  doing  double  duty  and  thus 
economizing  material  and  labor.  In  plan  and  method  of  con- 
struction, each  igloo  is  built  like  all  the  others.  There  is  a 
long,  low,  narrow  stone  tunnel;  a  small  standing  room;  a 
shallow  platformed  alcove  on  either  side  for  meat  and  the 
stone  lamps;  and  a  large  platformed  alcove  in  the  rear, — the 
family  bed.  A  single  small  window  of  seal  intestines  over 
the  entrance  admits  a  little  light. 

The  construction  of  one  of  these  primitive  habitations,  half 
excavated  beneath,  half  built  above  the  surface,  would  seem 
at  first  glance  to  demand  nothing  beyond  a  considerable  outlay 
of  manual  labor  in  transporting  and  arranging  the  stones. 
Yet  the  spanning  of  a  space  twelve  by  fourteen  feet  in  such 
a  way  as  to  support  a  heavy  load  of  stones,  turf,  and  snow,  is 
not  an  entirely  simple  problem  in  a  country  where  there  is 
literally  not  a  splinter  of  wood  or  anything  that  can  serve  as 
a  substitute  for  it.     Yet  these  children  of  the  ice  have  met  and 


WINTER  QUARTERS  LS7 

solved  this  problem  with  the  cantilever  principle,  ami  the  roofs 
of  these  old  stone  houses  are  every  one  supported  wit  1 1  massive 
stono  cantilevers,  firm  and  unyielding  as  a  masonry  arch.    In 

the  plan  and  arrangement  of  his  house,  too,  the  Eskimo  lias 
met  and  solved  each  problem  that  confronted  him,  and  though 
the  entrance  is  never  closed,  yet  no  draught  or  current  of  air 

disturbs  the  quiet  interior,  the  thick  non-conducting  walls  of 
stone  and  turf  are  perfect  insulators  from  the  savage  cold,  and 
the  heat  from  every  drop  of  the  precious  oil  burned  hi  the 
stone  lamps  is  fully  conserved.  Many  of  these  igloos  have 
every  appearance  of  being  centuries  old.  Vertebrae  of  the 
now  extinct  whale  are  almost  invariably  built  into  their  walls 
and  frequently  such  enormous  stones  are  used  in  supporting 
the  roofs,  that  it  seems  impossible  they  could  have  been  han- 
dled without  mechanical  appliances. 

All  the  roof  and  bed  platform  stones,  which  must  be  large, 
flat  and  thin,  as  well  as  many  of  those  for  the  Avails,  had  to  be 
brought  by  the  men  on  their  backs  from  the  mountains,  some- 
times a  distance  of  several  miles.  The  construction  of  the 
igloos  falls  very  largely  upon  the  women,  and  in  an  emergency 
they  even  assist  in  bringing  stones. 

These  stone  dwellings  are  occupied  from  the  latter  part  of 
September  till  April  or  May,  depending  upon  the  season,  lo- 
cality, and  movements  of  the  occupants.  By  May  they  usually 
become  very  damp,  and  then  the  family  betakes  itself  to  its 
tupik,  removing,  at  its  departure  from  the  igloo,  the  windows 
and  a  portion  of  the  roof,  so  that  throughout  the  summer  the 
sun  and  wind  may  have  free  access  to  the  interior.  There 
is  no  ownership  of  these  igloos  beyond  the  period  of  actual 
occupancy.  Any  one  of  them  is  free  to  each  and  all,  and  it 
is  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule  that  a  family  lives  in  the 
same  igloo,  or  in  fact  in  the  same  place,  two  years  in  succes- 
sion. .  .  .  The  building  of  a  new  igloo  is  rather  a  rarity,  also, 
and  is  necessary  only  when,  for  some  special  reason,  an  un- 
usually large  number  of  natives  are  attracted  to  one  place. 
Usually  no  more  families  locate  in  a  place  than  the  existing 
igloos  will  shelter. 


138  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

A  temporary  form  of  habitation  used  by  the 
Eskimos  at  the  spring  walrus  hunt  at  Cape 
Chalon,  and  sometimes  when  a  death  in  winter 
drives  a  family  out  of  the  permanent  habitation,  is 
constructed  of  snow,  lined,  in  the  case  of  the 
more-well-to-do  Eskimos,  with  their  skin  tupiks, 
or  tents. 

These  igloos  are  for  use  only  for  a  few  weeks. 
The  Whale  Sound  Eskimos  do  not,  like  the  Baffin 
Land  tribes,  use  snow  houses  for  their  permanent 
winter  habitations.  The  following  is  a  descrip- 
tion of  one  of  these : 

It  was  twelve  feet  long,  by  twelve  feet  wide,  and  seven 
feet  high,  in  the  highest  part  beneath  the  sealskin  lining.  The 
bed-platform,  raised  a  foot  and  a  half  above  the  floor,  was  six 
and  a  half  feet  deep;  and  the  standing  room  in  front  of  it  sis 
feet  by  five  feet.  The  window  of  seal  intestines  was  two  feet 
square.  The  igloo  was  lined  throughout  with  the  tupik  or 
summer  tent,  so  arranged  as  to  leave  an  air  space  between  it 
and  the  snow  walls  of  the  igloo,  thus  preventing  the  latter 
from  melting,  and  keeping  the  interior  dry.  A  small  hole  in 
the  highest  part  of  this  lining,  and  another  directly  over  it  in 
the  top  of  the  igloo,  afforded  ventilation. 

A  long,  low,  narrow  snow  tunnel  gave  access  to 
the  igloo,  and  protected  the  interior  from  drafts 
or  penetration  by  the  furious  spring  storms. 

A  still  more  temporary  form  is  the  small, 
rapidly  constructed  snow  igloo  used  by  traveling 
parties  in  winter  and  spring,  and  occupied  only  for 
a  single  night  unless  the  travelers  arc  held  by 


m 


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:'i 


AFTER    A    WINTER    BLIZZARD 
'Roosevelt"  surrounded  bj   chaos  of  shattered  and  upheaved  Ice 


*.      ^*  *  -, 


UNLOADING    SHIP    VI     WINTEB   QUARTERS 
The    "Roosevelt"   :it    Cape   Sheridan 


WINTER  QUARTERS  141 

storms.     This  is  the  kind  of  igloo  invariably  used 
by  my  parties  on  their  sledging-trips. 

The  Eskimos  can  nearly  always  tell  who  built 
an  igloo.  Though  they  are  all  constructed  on  one 
general  principle,  there  are  always  peculiarities 
of  individual  workmanship  which  are  readily 
recognized  by  these  experienced  children  of  the 
North,  whose  horizon  is  so  narrow  that  they  see 
and  remember  every  minute  trifle. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  all  these  houses 
is  that  warm  air  is  lighter  than  cold  and  rises. 
The  level  of  the  bed  and  living-platform  in  an 
Eskimo  igloo  is  always  higher  than  the  highest 
part  of  the  entrance  opening.  In  the  best  of  the 
permanent  winter  igloos  the  entrance  is  through 
the  floor.  As  a  result  of  this  construction,  every 
bit  of  warm  air  is  retained  in  the  igloo,  and  the 
long  and — whenever  practicable — downward- 
sloping  entrance  tunnel  prevents  even  the  most 
violent  air-waves  of  furious  blizzards  from  pene- 
trating the  quiet  interior.  The  vertical  varia- 
tions in  temperature  in  the  winter  igloo  of  a  suc- 
cessful hunter  who  has  good  store  of  blubber  to 
keep  the  stove-lamps  going  are  pronounced.  On 
the  bed  platform,  at  the  level  of  the  lamps,  the 
host  and  hostess  and  children  are  usually  in  their 
birthday  suits,  unless  the  lady,  in  deference  to 
the  presence  of  a  guest,  assumes  a  strip  of  seal 
skin  half  an  inch  wide.    If  one  stands,  bringing 


142  SECRETS  OF  TOLAR  TRAVEL 

the  head  to  the  top  of  the  igloo,  it  is  like  putting 
one's  head  into  a  furnace.  Yet  a  drop  of  water 
spilled  on  the  floor  of  the  igloo,  a  foot  below  the 
level  of  the  bed  platform,  is  instantly  frozen  into 
ice. 

On  several  subsequent  expeditions  my  parties 
wintered  on  board  ship,  and  this  introduced  new 
elements.  The  first  thing  to  be  done  by  any  well- 
managed  polar  expedition  on  reaching  winter 
quarters  is  to  land  everything  in  the  way  of  sup- 
plies and  equipment  and  fuel,  and  to  erect  suit- 
able shelter  for  the  entire  party  ashore  as  a  pre- 
caution against  fire  or  other  mishap  to  the  ship. 
The  ship  should,  in  fact,  be  emptied  completely. 

My  first  practical  working  out  of  this  proposi- 
tion was  with  the  Windward  at  Cape  D'Urville 
in  the  winter  of  1898-99.  The  boxes  of  supplies 
landed  here  were  erected  into  a  compact  house, 
with  a  box-tunnel  entrance,  fitted  with  a  small 
stove,  and  banked  in  completely  with  gravel, 
which  in  winter  of  course  became  covered  with 
snow,  giving  the  appearance  of  a  snow-drift. 
This  house,  in  addition  to  serving  as  insurance 
for  the  party  during  1898  and  1899  in  case  of  the 
loss  of  the  Windward,  lying  unprotected  in  the 
ice  offshore,  was  during  the  three  following  years 
a  welcome  haven  and  refuge  for  my  parties  sledg- 
ing from  Etah  and  Payer  Harbor  to  Fort  Conger. 
This  box-house  idea  was  greatly  extended  and 


WINTER  QUARTERS  143 

developed  in  my  last  two  expeditions  of  1905-OG 
and  1908-09  in  the  Roosevelt. 

At  Cape  Sheridan,  the  winter  quarters  for  these 
last  two  expeditions,  we  built  box  houses  ashore, 
using  the  boxes  containing  supplies  just  as  we  did 
in  previous  years,  and  packing  them  in  firmly 
with  hay.  The  packing  of  our  supplies  for  this 
purpose  in  boxes  of  certain  sizes  was  one  of  the 
many  details  wThich  determined  the  success  of  the 
expedition.  The  heavy  cases  of  bacon,  pemmi- 
can,  flour,  etc.,  were  used  as  so  many  blocks  in 
the  construction  of  several  houses  about  thirty 
feet  long  and  fifteen  feet  wide.  For  roofs,  sails 
thrown  over  boat-spars  or  beams  were  used,  and 
later  were  covered  in  solid  with  snow.  A  stove 
set  up  in  these  made  good  workrooms  for  the 
Eskimos  through  the  winter.  On  the  last  trip 
north,  when  the  Roosevelt  was  caught  in  the  grip 
of  the  ice,  the  Eskimos  became  so  thoroughly 
frightened  that  they  picked  up  their  belongings 
and  took  to  the  box  houses  for  the  night,  some  of 
them  spending  the  rest  of  the  winter  in  them  or 
in  snow  igloos. 

The  adjacent  shore  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  was 
lined  with  the  remaining  boxes  of  supplies,  each 
item  of  provisions  having  a  pile  to  itself.  This 
packing-box  village  was  called  Hubbardville. 

Had  we  lost  the  Roosevelt  at  Cape  Sheridan,  we 
should  have  spent  the  winter  in  the  box  houses 


144  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

■which  we  constructed,  and  in  the  spring  should 
have  made  the  dash  for  the  pole  just  the  same. 
We  should  have  then  walked  the  350  miles  to  Cape 
Sabine,  crossed  the  Smith  Sound  ice  to  Etah,  and 
waited  for  a  ship. 

The  second  new  element  introduced  into  my 
later  expeditions  by  the  presence  of  a  ship  was  the 
preparation  of  the  ship  itself  for  winter  quarters. 

A  partial  beginning  at  this  wTas  made  on  the 
Windward,  where  my  own  personal  quarters  were 
an  Erie  Eailroad  caboose  given  to  me  by  my 
friend  Eben  Thomas,  president  of  that  road. 
This  caboose  I  put  on  the  deck  of  the  Windward 
between  the  mainmast  and  foremast,  and  bolted  it 
down  like  any  deck-house.  In  the  autumn  at 
Cape  D'Urville,  when  the  temperatures  began  to 
go  down  seriously,  I  had  my  Eskimos  incase  and 
cover  it  in  with  a  wall  of  snow-blocks,  and  build 
a  beehive-shaped  vestibule  or  storm  entrance  of 
snow-blocks  round  the  door. 

This  arrangement,  in  its  comfort,  facility  of 
ventilation,  freedom  from  the  moisture  and  con- 
densation incident  to  the  quarters  of  the  others 
below  decks  and  the  old  system  of  ships '  quarters, 
was  so  superior  that  I  was  convinced  the  only 
place  for  the  quarters  of  a  polar  ship  was  on  deck. 
In  building  the  Roosevelt  I  put  the  quarters  for 
every  one,  officers,  crew,  and  Eskimos,  on  deck, 
and  in  the  two  expeditions  of  1905-06  and  1908-09, 
in  wintering  at  Cape  Sheridan,  I  worked  out  fully 


WINTER  QUARTERS  145 

what  I  believe  to  be  the  most  comfortable  and  sat- 
isfactory method  of  ship's  winter  quarters. 

As  a  result,  the  officers  and  crew  of  my  last  two 
expeditions  had  light  and  roomy  accommodations 
on  deck,  a  great  improvement  over  the  old  method 
of  housing  a  party  below  docks,  as  in  all  old- 
fashioned  ships,  and  even  in  ships  built  compara- 
tively recently  for  polar  work. 

My  assistants  and  the  ship's  officers  were  quar- 
tered in  a  deck-house  between  the  mainmast  and 
mizzenmast.  The  deck-house  extended  clear 
across  the  ship,  was  low-posted, — seven  feet  from 
floor  to  ceiling, — and  contained  the  cook's  galley 
and  domain  as  well  as  our  quarters.  It  was 
plainly  and  strongly  constructed,  sheathed  inside, 
and  special  care  was  taken,  by  the  use  of  heavy 
building  paper,  double  planking,  and  close  joints, 
to  have  no  cracks  or  joints  for  the  entrance  of 
cold  air. 

The  journey  north  in  the  ship,  being  a  summer 
coasting  voyage,  with  no  danger  from  high  or 
heavy  seas,  and  the  deck-house  being  above  the 
main  structure  of  the  ship,  I  was  able  to  put  in 
large  plate-glass  ports  along  the  sides  to  light  the 
interior;  and  for  the  same  reason  I  was  able  to 
put  real  windows — four  in  all,  double  and  of  spe- 
cial heavy  glass — in  the  forward  and  after  end 
of  the  deck-house,  with  generous  panes  of  glass 
in  the  upper  part  of  each  of  the  four  doors,  two 
forward  and  two  aft,  which  opened  into  it. 


146  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

This  arrangement  made  the  quarters  immeas- 
urably pleasanter  and  more  sanitary.  On  the  up- 
ward voyage  we  got  full  value  of  all  the  sunlight 
there  was,  ventilation  was  perfect,  and  from  my 
stateroom  I  could  at  all  times  command  the  situ- 
ation; and  if  I  was  needed  on  the  bridge,  it  was 
only  a  step  through  the  door  to  the  deck,  and  two 
jumps  up  the  ladder  to  the  bridge.  The  great 
value  of  this  large  window  area  was  in  the  late 
autumn  and  early  spring,  when  it  gave  us  in  each 
case  about  two  weeks  more  of  daylight  in  our 
quarters,  and  shortened  by  just  so  much  the  long 
period  of  continuous  lamplight.  The  arrange- 
ment was  also  invaluable  for  those  left  on  board 
when  the  main  spring  sledge-parties  left  for  their 
work,  and  for  the  sledge-parties  themselves  in  the 
weeks  of  waiting  after  their  return  in  May  or 
June  till  the  ship  could  break  out  of  her  winter 
quarters  in  July  or  August. 

My  polar  experience  has  made  me  a  fanatic  on 
the  subject  of  light.  My  little  summer  cottage  on 
the  bluff  point  of  a  rocky  islet  off  the  Maine  coast 
has  so  many  windows  that  it  is  known  by  the  sur- 
rounding inhabitants  as  the  "glass  house."  Sun- 
worship  seems  to  me  the  most  natural  of  religions, 
and  I  wonder  why  all  primitive  peoples  were  not 
devotees  of  it. 

My  crew  and  Eskimos  were  quartered  in  a  long, 
commodious     topgallant    forecastle,    which     ex- 


WINTER  QUARTERS  117 

tended  from  the  heel  of  the  bowsprit  to  well  aft 
of  the  foremast.  This  fo'c'sle,  like  the  after 
deck-house,  extended  the  full  width  of  the  ship, 
and  was  low  posted, — six  and  a  half  feet  from 
deck  to  ceiling, — and  also  had  large  ports  along 
the  sides,  and  large  windows  in  the  after  end, 
looking  out  on  the  main-deck.  A  fore-and-;ii'l 
bulkhead  its  entire  length  divided  it  into  two  equal 
parts.  The  starboard  side  was  assigned  to  the 
crew  and  the  port  side  to  the  Eskimos. 

Around  the  walls  of  the  Eskimo  half  of  the 
fo'c'sle  was  built  a  wide  platform,  three  or  four 
feet  above  the  deck,  to  simulate  the  internal  ar- 
rangement of  their  usual  winter  houses.  The 
quarters  of  each  family  were  partitioned  off  by 
boards,  and  curtains  screened  the  front.  They 
were  supplied  with  oilstoves,  pots,  pans,  plates, 
etc.,  and  cooked  their  meat  and  anything  else  they 
wanted,  eating  when  the  spirit  moved,  as  is  the 
custom  among  these  people.  Beans,  hash,  or  any- 
thing of  that  kind  provided  from  the  ship's  stores 
were  cooked  for  them,  and  they  were  also  sup- 
plied wTith  tea,  coffee,  and  bread  by  the  steward. 

The  winter  of  1908-09  the  Roosevelt  lay  at  Cape 
Sheridan,  parallel  to  the  shore,  just  over  the  edge 
of  the  ice-foot  bank.  Her  nose  pointed  north,  her 
port  side  was  next  the  shore.  On  that  side,  be- 
tween ship  and  shore,  a  distance  of  a  hundred 
yards,  was  the  shallow  ice-foot  lagoon,  covered 


148  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

with  one  season's  ice.  On  the  starboard  side  was 
the  heavy  polar  ice,  and  a  short  distance  from 
the  ship  a  depth  of  twenty  fathoms. 

The  experience  of  the  previous  expedition  had 
shown  that  a  severe  westerly  storm  or  the  ground- 
ing of  a  heavy  floe  at  a  point  where  it  would  de- 
flect the  moving  ice  against  the  ship,  or  a  big  floe 
rotating  down  the  shore  on  the  surge  of  the 
spring-tides  might  at  any  time  send  a  cataract  of 
ice  against  the  Roosevelt  with  a  force  which,  if 
not  deflected,  might  push  the  ship  high  and  dry 
ashore.  To  assist  the  ice  in  turning  down  and 
passing  under  the  ship  when  such  pressure  came 
I  had  the  heavy  ice  cut  away  round  the  ship  on  a 
bevel  toward  the  ship's  sides,  with  the  inner  edge 
in  contact  with  the  ship  down  to  or  below  the 
water-level. 

Small  pieces  of  ice  and  snow  were  then  banked 
against  the  ship's  sides  up  to  the  deck-level.  The 
object  of  this  was  twofold,  to  help  by  its  weight 
to  turn  the  ice  under  the  ship  when  the  pressure 
came,  and  also  to  blanket  the  ship  against  the 
winter  storms  and  bitter  cold.  On  top  of  this 
embankment  a  wall  or  armor-plating  of  snow- 
blocks  from  a  foot  to  eighteen  inches  thick  was 
built  as  high  as  the  tops  of  the  deck-houses  both 
forward  and  aft.  The  tops  of  the  deck-houses 
were  covered  with  an  equal  thickness,  and  the 
thwartship  ends  of  the  deck-houses  protected  by 
similar  walls.     Entrances  to  the  after  deek-house. 


WINTER  QUARTERS  151 

to  the  fo-Vsle,  and  to  the  Eskimo  quarters  were 
guarded  by  roomy  beehive-shaped  snow  houses, 
with  a  small  low  door  opening  out  upon  the  deck. 

Behind  this  snow-armor  protection  against  the 
siege  of  the  frost  king,  we  passed  the  winter  in 
complete  comfort,  with  a  minimum  expenditure  of 
fuel,  with  perfect  ventilation,  with  very  little  of 
the  moisture  and  condensation  which  is  usually 
the  bugbear  of  polar  ship's  quarters,  and  with 
instant  and  easy  access  to  the  outside  for  work 
or  in  an  emergency.  The  snow  armor  costs  noth- 
ing; it  is  found  on  the  spot,  and  therefore  takes 
no  room  on  the  upward  voyage,  and  when  it  has 
served  its  purpose  it  is  thrown  overboard. 

During  the  successive  expeditions  north  I  also 
had  several  other  experiences  in  building  winter 
quarters,  some  of  which  may  be  of  interest. 

The  Erie  Railroad  caboose  mentioned  above, 
which  was  used  as  a  deck-house  on  the  Windward 
during  the  winter  of  1898-99,  served  also  a  sec- 
ond season  at  Etah.  In  the  summer  of  1899, 
after  the  Windward  broke  out  of  the  ice  at  Cape 
DTJrville,  she  returned  to  Etah,  and  here  I  had 
the  caboose  hoisted  over  the  side,  floated  ashore, 
and  hauled  up  to  a  place  which  I  had  selected. 
From  one  end  of  this  a  long  workroom  was  built 
with  the  boxes  of  provisions,  and  roofed  over 
with  a  sail.  The  Eskimos  of  my  immediate  party 
constructed  their  winter  houses  with  entrances 
leading   into    this    common    workroom,    and   the 


158  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

whole  group  was  then  buried  deep  in  snow,  form- 
ing an  entirely  comfortable  habitation  for  the 
entire  party. 

Another  experience  was  at  Payer  Harbor. 
When  the  remodeled  Windward  went  north  in 
1901  she  had  a  commodious  and  well-built  deck- 
house forward  that  had  been  constructed  for 
quarters  for  her  officers.  On  my  decision  to  re- 
main north  another  year,  remembering  my  ex- 
perience at  Etah,  I  decided  to  save  my  party  the 
valuable  time  and  labor  incident  to  constructing 
winter  quarters  by  utilizing  this  deck-house. 
Captain  Sam  Bartlett  and  his  men  lifted  it  from 
the  deck,  lowered  it  over  the  side,  ran  it  over  the 
heavy  harbor  ice  on  timber  shoes,  and  with  tackles 
and  falls  hauled  it  up  the  rocks  to  the  place  that 
I  had  selected  for  it. 

Here,  after  the  ship  had  left,  we  banked  it  in 
completely  as  high  as  the  bottom  of  the  port- 
holes with  loose  dry  gravel,  which  is  abundant  at 
Payer  Harbor,  and  when  the  snow  came,  covered 
it  completely,  roof  and  all,  with  an  armor  of  twro- 
foot-thick  snow-blocks,  carefully  laid  and  cemented 
together  by  throwing  water  on  the  joints.  A 
double  snow  igloo,  Eskimo  style,  at  the  entrance 
kept  out  completely  the  furious  winds  which 
howled  incessantly  past  Cape  Sabine  and  Payer 
Harbor,  and  we  lived  here  through  the  winter  of 
1901-02  in  perfect  comfort,  with  a  minimum  ex- 
penditure of  fuel. 


WINTER  QUARTERS  153 

The  third  and  perhaps  most  interesting  experi- 
ence was  at  Fort  Conger,  the  headquarters  of 
the  Lady  Franklin  Bay  Expedition.  Returning 
here  in  June,  1900,  from  my  long  sledge-journey 
round  the  northern  end  of  Greenland,  in  which  I 
proved  the  insularity  of  that  island  continent,  I 
wraited  at  Fort  Conger  through  the  summer  on  the 
possibility  that  an  auxiliary  ship  might  come 
north  and  be  able  to  reach  me. 

When  late  in  the  season  it  became  evident  that 
no  ship  would  arrive,  I  took  up  the  matter  of  the 
winter  quarters  for  my  small  party,  consisting, 
beside  myself,  of  Henson,  the  doctor,  and  several 
Eskimos.  The  utilization  of  the  building  known 
as  Fort  Conger  was  entirely  out  of  the  question. 
This  great  barn  of  a  structure,  sixty  feet  long  by 
thirty  feet  wide,  was  grotesque  in  its  utter  unfit- 
ness and  unsuitableness  for  polar  winter  quarters. 
With  its  great  size,  its  light  construction,  and  its 
high-posted  rooms,  nine  or  ten  feet  from  floor  to 
ceiling,  it  embodied  about  everything  that  should 
not  be  found  in  winter  quarters. 

One  possibility  would  have  been  to  construct  in 
the  center  of  one  of  the  great  rooms  of  this  build- 
ing a  small  room  with  material  taken  from  other 
parts  of  the  house,  utilizing  the  big  house  simply 
as  a  wind-break,  and  constructing  the  small  apart- 
ment in  the  proper  way,  with  double  walls.,  low 
ceiling,  and  tight  joints. 

After  some  consideration,  however,  I  gave  up 


154  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

this  idea,  and  decided  upon  three  small  structures 
outside  of  the  big  house  and  made  partly  of  ma- 
terial from  it.  For  myself,  partly  to  economize 
the  lumber,  partly  as  a  practical  experiment,  and 
partly  to  furnish  occupation  and  amusement  for 
myself,  as  I  still  was  somewhat  incapacitated 
from  taking  part  in  the  hunting-trips  over  the 
rocks  and  frozen  ground  as  the  result  of  the  acci- 
dent to  my  feet  the  year  before,  I  decided  to 
make  for  myself  a  winter  den,  as  perharjs  it  might 
be  called,  from  an  eight  by  twTelve  A  tent,  which  I 
found  among  the  things  at  Conger,  as  a  nucleus. 

First  I  made  an  eight-by-twelve-foot  floor  of 
boards  resting  directly  upon  a  bed  of  gravel. 
The  idea  of  air  spaces  round  a  polar  dwelling  as 
an  insulation  against  the  cold  is,  like  many  other 
ideas  connected  with  the  polar  regions,  a  pure 
fallacy.  At  each  corner  of  this  floor  I  drove  a 
post,  sawing  it  off  four  feet  above  the  ground, 
connected  the  tops  of  these  posts  with  horizontal 
joists,  boarded  up  to  this  joist  with  odds  and  ends 
of  old  boards,  and  banked  in  to  the  top  of  this 
boarding  with  the  surrounding  gravel,  working  in 
against  the  boards,  as  the  gravel  bank  gradually 
rose,  a  two-or-three-inch  thickness  of  grass,  which 
grows  somewhat  abundantly  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Conger. 

On  top  of  these  joists  I  erected  the  tent,  putting 
in  a  few  intermediate  rafters  on  each  side  of  the 
ridge-pole  to  prevent  the  side  of  the  tent  from 


WINTER  QUARTERS  155 

sagging;  fitted  a  small  door-frame  and  door 
into  one  end  of  the  tent ;  and  on  the  sides  two  win- 
dow-frames and  windows  taken  from  the  big 
house ;  then  covered  the  tent  completely,  roof  and 
gable  ends,  with  the  straw-filled  mattresses  taken 
from  the  men's  quarters  of  the  big  house.  A 
chimney  made  from  a  few  lengths  of  vitrified 
sewer-pipe  found  in  the  material  at  Conger,  a 
stove  constructed  from  a  ten-gallon  sheet-iron  oil 
tin,  one  of  the  cots  from  the  big  house,  a  table, 
and  a  chair  completed  the  outfit. 

Later,  when  the  snow  came,  a  wall  of  snow- 
blocks  eighteen  inches  in  thickness  was  carefully 
laid,  inclosing  the  entire  tent,  each  course  as  it 
was  laid  being  sprinkled  with  water  brought  up 
from  the  bay,  the  joints  cemented  in  the  same 
manner,  and  after  all  was  done,  bucketful  after 
bucketful  of  water  dashed  over  the  structure  until 
it  was  essentially  a  single  block  of  ice.  A  low, 
narrow,  covered  snow-tunnel  entrance,  with 
storm-door  at  the  outer  end,  gave  access  to  the 
tent. 

In  this  structure  I  passed  the  polar  winter  at 
Fort  Conger  in  entire  comfort,  using  for  fuel 
chips,  old  papers,  bits  of  tarred  paper,  and  the 
like  picked  up  during  the  summer  about  Fort 
Conger.  To  give  an  idea  of  the  complete  insula- 
tion of  this  place  from  the  external  cold,  I  found, 
on  returning  from  some  of  the  autumn  hunting- 
trips,  that  I  could  warm  the  interior  of  my  tent  to 


156  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

a  comfortable  temperature  by  the  judicious  burn- 
ing of  a  yard  of  tar  roofing  paper  in  my  sheet- 
iron  stove. 

Winter  quarters  should  be  as  warm  and  com- 
fortable as  possible,  as  a  matter  of  improving  the 
effectiveness  of  the  personnel.  In  this  they  play 
a  very  important  part.  Men  who  have  passed 
the  winter  in  comfort  and  ample  warmth  have 
more  vitality  and  endurance  and  will  stand  the 
strain  and  exposure  of  the  spring  sledge-journey 
better  than  men  who  have  been  uncomfortable  and 
chilly  through  the  winter.  This  is  just  as  definite 
a  proposition  as  that  Eskimo  dogs  that  have  been 
well  fed  during  the  winter  will  stand  the  sledge- 
journey  better  than  dogs  that  have  been  half  fed. 
The  ideas  of  toughening  one's  self  against  the 
cold,  of  training  for  the  sledge-journey,  of  inuring 
one's  self  to  scant  rations,  are  fallacies. 

The  Eskimos,  through  generation  of  life  in  the 
polar  regions,  have  worked  out  from  stern  ex- 
perience the  true  practice  in  all  such  life  ques- 
tions, and  we  find  them  keeping  their  winter  habi- 
tations heated  up  to  the  nineties,  and  we  find 
them  gorging  themselves  with  food  when  food  is 
to  be  had.  As  a  result,  when  the  necessity  arises, 
they  are  in  condition,  and  have  a  reserve  vitality 
which  enables  them  to  endure  bitter  cold  and  to 
go  for  a  long  time  on  scant  food. 

Even  the  animals,  the  musk-ox,  the  reindeer, 


WINTER  QUARTERS  157 

the  hare,  know  the  trick,  and  during  the  summer 
eat  incessantly  and  travel  little,  and  thus  get 
themselves  in  condition  for  the  bitter  winter  when 
it  requires  incessant  travel  to  secure  starvation 
rations. 

After  the  question  of  suitable  quarters  for  a 
party  comes  the  problem  of  keeping  them  in  good 
spirits  during  the  four  months  of  darkness,  the 
secret  of  which  lies  in  keeping  each  member  busy 
and  in  varying  the  monotony  of  the  work  as  much 
as  possible.  For  this  purpose  much  of  my  mate- 
rial was  taken  north  in  the  rough,  and  the  work 
of  shaping  it — building  sledges  for  our  spring 
work,  making  harnesses  for  the  dogs,  our  fur 
clothing,  and  other  equipment — as  well  as  regular 
hunting-trips,  kept  time  from  hanging  heavily  on 
our  hands.  The  younger  members  of  the  party 
invariably  went  out  on  hunting-parties  during  the 
eight  or  ten  days  of  moonlight  each  month,  those 
who  went  into  the  field  one  moon  staying  on  the 
ship  the  next.  The  coming  and  going  of  these 
parties  gave  plenty  to  talk  about  and  to  look  for- 
ward to. 

As  for  hedging  my  men  about  with  rigorous 
rules,  I  believe  it  is  not  necessary,  and  have  never 
done  it.  Much  of  the  routine  of  ship  life  was  laid 
aside  while  we  were  in  winter  quarters,  there  be- 
ing only  the  watches  of  the  regular  day  and  night 
watchmen,  the  only  reg-ular  bells  being  a  signal 


158  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

for  all  noise  to  cease  at  ten  in  the  evening,  and 
another  for  lights  to  be  turned  out  at  midnight. 
.Meals  were  served  at  regular  hours  in  the  mess- 
rooms,  and  lights  were  supposed  to  be  out  at  mid- 
night, but  were  not  forbidden  if  a  man  wanted  one 
after  that  time.  For  the  Eskimos  there  was  one 
rigid  rule — no  noise  was  to  be  made  by  them  after 
the  ten  o'clock  bell  until  eight  the  next  morning. 
And  they  knew,  if  they  were  up  late  at  night,  they 
would  be  expected  to  go  on  with  their  work  of 
building  sledges  and  making  fur  clothing  as  usual 
the  next  day.  The  engineers  and  sailors,  besides 
attending  to  their  regular  work,  sometimes  helped 
with  the  equipment,  but  seldom  went  out  on  hunt- 
ing-trips. 

I  had  a  fairly  complete  arctic  library  in  my 
cabin,  and  these  books  were  borrowed  one  at  a 
time  by  the  different  members  of  the  expedition. 
We  also  had  a  good  collection  of  the  best  novels, 
which  did  much  to  while  away  the  long  evenings, 
and  a  pianola,  the  gift  of  a  friend,  gave  us  all 
great  pleasure.  The  sailors  amused  themselves 
with  games  of  checkers,  dominoes,  cards,  in  story- 
telling, boxing,  and  in  contests  of  strength  with 
the  Eskimos.  A  banjo  or  an  accordion  was  in 
almost  every  party,  and  frequent  phonograph 
concerts  in  charge  of  the  steward,  Percy,  varied 
the  monotony.  Holidays  like  Christmas,  New 
Year's,   Thanksgiving,   and   birthdays   were   ob- 


WINTER  QUARTERS  159 

served  by  a  special  dinner,  with  a  table-cloth  and 
our  best  dishes,  with  perhaps  games  or  sports 
afterward.  On  all  my  expeditions  few,  if  any, 
complaints  of  homesickness  or  monotony  were 
made. 


CHAPTER  VI 

POLAR   CLOTHING 

THE  question  of  clothing  is  one  of  vital  im- 
portance to  the  polar  explorer,  and  it  is  a 
matter  concerning  which  there  is  a  wide  difference 
of  opinion  among  various  authorities.  Despite 
what  some  explorers  say  to  the  contrary,  clothing 
made  from  the  fur  of  arctic  animals  is  the  only 
kind  suitable  for  serious  work  in  these  regions. 
Many,  finding  the  fur  clothing  of  their  own  par- 
ticular expeditions  unsatisfactory  for  the  pur- 
poses to  which  they  put  it,  have  drawn  general 
instead  of  specific  conclusions  in  regard  to  the 
value  of  fur. 

There  have  been  very  few  who  have  appreciated 
the  value  of  fur  clothing.  Nansen  was  one  of 
these,  but  he  was  not  fortunate  enough  to  be  able 
to  get  the  real  polar  furs  for  use,  and  therefore 
found  his  wolf-skins  not  so  satisfactory  as  he 
had  expected. 

Schwatka  was  about  the  only  arctic  traveler  of 
the  recent  past  who  appeared  to  have  fully  appre- 
ciated and  to  have  known  how  to  use  fur  clothing 
properly,  and  he  was  perhaps  the  only  one  who 
was  an  outspoken  and  unequivocal  advocate  of 
its  value. 

ico 


POLAR  CLOTHING  161 

British  explorers  seem  to  have  been  specially 
averse  to  the  use  of  furs  in  arctic  work,  their 
aversion  to  this  style  of  clothing  being  as  pro- 
nounced as  their  antipathy  to  the  Eskimo  dog  for 
traction  power.  This  may  perhaps  be  due  to  fail- 
ure to  understand  the  use  of  these  two  essential 
factors  in  the  successful  explorer's  work. 

Stefansson  is  one  of  the  most  practical  of  pres- 
ent-day polar  explorers,  and  in  an  interesting  ar- 
ticle on  "Misconceptions  about  Life  in  the  Arctic" 
("Bulletin  American  Geographical  Society, " 
January,  1913)  he  has  the  following  to  say  about 
clothing : 

That  fur  clothing  is  not  suited  for  Arctic  wear  is  a  thesis 
of  some  explorers  of  high  standing.  Like  many  other  such 
beliefs  it  has  its  reasons,  but  to  the  mind  of  the  present  writer 
there  seems  to  be  a  flaw  in  the  reasoning.  The  conclusion  of 
these  eminent  writers  should  have  been  specific  rather  than 
general;  they  should  have  concluded  that  such  fur  clothing  as 
their  particular  expedition  was  provided  with  was  unsatisfac- 
tory for  the  particular  use  to  which  they  put  it;  they  did  not 
have  the  logical  right  to  condemn  fur  clothing  in  general  be- 
cause such  as  they  had,  when  used  as  they  used  it,  did  not  give 
satisfaction. 

Most  of  the  fur  clothing  to  which  its  wearers  have  objected 
is  made  in  temperate  lands  (such  as  Norway)  by  people  who 
are  unfamiliar  with  the  conditions  to  be  met  by  the  garments 
they  are  making;  secondly,  there  is  an  art  of  taking  care  of 
fur  clothing — that  a  fur  coat  rots  to  pieces  on  a  man's  back 
in  a  week  is  really  a  criticism  of  the  man,  not  the  coat,  though 
the  coat  usually  gets  the  blame.  The  whole  art  is  in  keeping 
the  garment  dry  or  drying  it  when  it  becomes  wet.  Explorers 
of  standing  have  said  in  print  that  this  cannot  be  done,  a  con- 
clusion with  which  I  do  not  believe  any  man  will  agree  who 


162  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

has  been  a  member  of  Peary's  expeditions,  Amundsen's  North- 
West  Passage  Expedition  or  Leflingwell  and  Mikkelsen's  Arc- 
tic Expedition,  or  in  fact  of  any  expedition  wbose  members 
have  thought  it  worth  their  while  to  see  how  the  Eskimos  take 
care  of  their  fur  clothing. 

The  writer  has  had  personal  experience  with  "approved  fur 
clothing  for  Arctic  use"  made  (in  Norway,  or  Lapland,  I  be- 
lieve) for  Scott's  first  Antarctic  Expedition  and  the  Lefiing- 
well-Mikkelsen  Arctic  Expedition.  I  have  been  told  the  deer- 
skin clothing  of  both  these  expeditions  was  made  under  the 
same  auspices;  at  any  rate,  it  was  substantially  similar  in 
character.  It  is  easy  to  understand  how  an  explorer  whose 
experience  was  confined  to  such  fur  clothing  should  conclude 
it  unsuited  to  Arctic  use — or,  indeed,  to  any  use  whatever 
except  that  of  exhibition  as  curiosities.  A  description  of  a 
typical  garment — a  coat  given  me  by  Captain  Mikkelsen — 
will  suffice. 

The  coat  was  made  of  deerskin  whose  thickness  and  length 
of  fur  leads  me  to  think  it  was  taken  from  an  old  male  deer 
during,  say,  the  month  of  November.  The  skin  was  so  thick 
that  the  coat  would  almost  stand  alone  on  the  floor;  it  was  so 
stiff  that  when  one  had  it  on  it  took  considerable  muscular 
effort  to  bend  the  arm  to  a  right  angle  at  the  elbow;  when 
one  allowed  the  arms  to  hang  naturally  they  stuck  out  from 
the  body  approximately  at  an  angle  of  35  or  40  degrees.  The 
coat  was  open  in  front,  from  the  neck  down,  some  ten  or 
twelve  inches  and  even  when  buttoned  up  allowed  the  wind 
to  blow  in ;  when  the  garment  had  once  been  put  on  I  could 
not  get  it  off  without  help,  although  it  was  several  "sizes" 
too  large  for  me.  On  a  spring  balance  (which  may  indeed 
not  have  been  accurate),  the  coat  weighed  over  ten  pounds,  or 
about  as  much  as  a  complete  double  suit  of  inner  and  outer 
garments  of  well-made  Eskimo  fur  clothing  suitable  for  any 
winter  weather. 

As  a  contrast  to  the  above  "approved"  Arctic  fur  coat,  take 
a  coat  such  as  is  worn  by  the  Eskimos  of  the  north  coast  of 
America.  To  begin  with,  Eskimos  use  the  skins  of  old  male 
caribou  only  for  boot  soles  or  for  floor  covering  in  their  dwell- 


POLAR    CLOTIIIXG 
Compare   the   fitness  and  evident    comfort,    freedom  and   convenience 

of    the    fur    costu s    in    iliis    picture    with    the    uondescript    rigs    of 

artificial  fabric  used  by  many  north  and  south   polar  parties 


A      TUG   OF   WAR      AT  SI       \.    i.vi.    AND        •  >•>      1. 
Note    the    freedom   of   motion   and    complete   protection   afforded    i>.\    ill 

fur   rig 


POLAR  CLOTHING  165 

ings;  those  for  garments  are  taken  in  summer,  while  the  hair 
is  short,  from  young  deer — fawns  and  yearlings  preferably. 
They  are  scraped  into  the  softness  of  chamois  with  stone  (or 
iron)  scrapers  and  sewed  into  clothes  that  fit  as  loosely  as  our 
summer  suits.  The  coat  is  put  on  after  the  manner  of  a 
sweater  and  hangs  loose  everywhere  except  that  its  hood  fits 
snugly  around  the  face  (over  the  head,  in  front  of  the  ears 
and  under  the  chin).  The  coat  I  am  wearing  this  winter 
weighs  3^2  pounds,  and  I  have  another  (a  trifle  too  light  for 
an  outer  garment  and  intended  for  an  undershirt)  that  weighs 
2%  pounds.  My  3%-pound  coat  is  actually  a  warmer  garment 
than  the  heavy  European  coat  described  above,  is  soft  as  vel- 
vet and  in  good  condition  after  six  months'  wear  and  nine 
hundred  miles  of  winter  travel.  I  have  seen  complete  Eskimo 
winter  suits  consisting  of  one  pair  of  socks,  one  pair  of  boots, 
one  pair  of  drawers,  one  pair  of  trousers,  one  undershirt,  one 
coat,  two  pairs  of  mittens — all  of  deerskin — that  weigh  only 
10  pounds  in  all  and  yet  are  warm  enough  to  keep  a  man  com- 
fortable all  day  in  such  cold  occupations  as  sitting  on  a  snow 
block  fishing  with  a  hook  through  a  hole  in  the  ice  at  40°  below 
zero.  Now  that  deer  are  getting  scarcer  on  this  part  of  the 
coast,  however,  the  Eskimos  are  forced  to  use  skins  they  would 
not  have  considered  fit  for  clothing  a  few  years  ago — and  still 
I  do  not  think  I  have  as  yet  seen  a  suit  that  would  weigh  as 
much  as  the  combined  weight  of  one  coat  and  one  shirt  of  the 
"approved  Arctic  clothing."  It  goes  without  saying  that  the 
Leffingwell-Mikkelsen  Expedition  discarded  their  European 
clothing  as  soon  as  they  came  in  contact  with  the  superior 
Eskimo  garments;  the  British  Antarctic  Expedition  naturally 
had  to  use  theirs  or  fall  back  on  woolens  in  the  unpeopled 
lands  to  which  they  had  gone. 

As  to  the  suitability  of  woolens  for  Arctic  wear:  There 
have  been  few  expeditions  fitted  out  with  such  care  in  every 
way  as  was  Roald  Amundsen's  Gjoa  Expedition,  and  the  finest 
woolen  coats  and  underwear  I  had  ever  seen  were  the  (Danish?) 
garments  used  by  them.  From  my  own  experience  with  a 
coat  from  that  expedition  which  came  into  my  hands  and  whkh 
I   used   occasionally  during  the  winter  of  1900-07   there   is 


166  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

this  to  say:  I  suppose  the  Scandinavian  "vadrnal"  coat 
would  be  as  fit  for  service  after  three  years  as  a  deerskin  coat 
is  after  one,  but  the  woolen  coat  is  double  the  weight  of  an 
average  deerskin  one  and  not  more  than  half  as  warm.  It 
makes  a  good  coat  in  calm  weather,  but  the  wind  penetrates  it 
easily.  While  it  forms  a  good  emergency  garment  there  is 
little  doubt  that  any  future  ventures  of  Capt.  Amundsen's 
will  depend  chiefly  upon  garments  of  the  Eskimo  type.  I  have 
heard  that  the  Gjoa  had  some  wolfskin  clothing  that  was  quite 
satisfactory  for  winter  use;  this,  when  well  made,  doubtless 
forms  a  passable  substitute  for  deerskins  and  is  probably 
even  warmer,  pound  for  pound  of  weight. 

I  am  fully  in  sympathy  with  Stefansson's  views, 
and  have  had  the  same  experience  and  some  of 
the  same  nightmare  fur  clothing  that  he  speaks  of 
so  feelingly. 

Stefansson's  Eskimos,  however,  make  their  en- 
tire clothing  of  deerskin,  as  do  the  Baffin  Land 
tribes.  My  Whale  Sound  Eskimos,  either  from 
the  greater  severity  of  their  seasons,  or  on  account 
of  the  greater  number  of  fur-bearing  animals,  or 
the  scarcity  of  reindeer,  use  a  greater  variety  of 
furs  in  their  costume,  and  to  my  mind  have  evolved 
a  better  costume.  Bearskin,  in  particular  for 
trousers  and  midwinter  boots,  I  consider  far  su- 
perior to  deerskin,  and  I  have  used  both. 

After  over  twenty  years  of  experience,  I  con- 
sider the  Whale  Sound  Eskimo  clothing  in  ma- 
terial, design,  and  method  of  wearing  the  ideal 
clothing  for  polar  work.  With  very  slight  modi- 
fications, I  have  adopted  it  completely  for  my 
parties,  and  I  believe  that  failure  to  use  it  is  a  de- 


POLAR  CLOTHING  167 

liberate  waste  of  the  energies  of  a  party,  a  handi- 
cap to  its  work,  and  a  danger  to  the  members. 

My  personal  outfit  on  my  last  journey  was  as 
follows : 

A  skin-tight  shirt  of  the  finest  quality  of  thin 
red  flannel,  something  like  a  one-piece  knit  bath- 
ing-suit, with  a  close-fitting  hood.  This  garment 
covered  body,  arms,  wrists,  neck,  head,  and  came 
down  about  three  inches  on  the  thighs.  It  pro- 
tected me  from  any  roughness  of  the  fur  clothing 
and  from  the  unpleasant  clammy  sensation  when 
occasionally,  in  heavy  going  and  constant  lifting 
on  the  sledges,  the  inside  of  my  fur  coat  became 
temporarily  moist  with  perspiration.  The 
warmth  of  my  body  kept  the  flannel  shirt  always 
dr}r.  Acrjjss  the  back?  over  the  kidneys,  a  second 
thickness  of  flannel  was  sewed  to  protect  the  kid- 
neys from  cold  and  consequent  overaction.  There 
were  no  buttons,  hooks,  strings,  or  fastenings  of 
any  kind  on  this  shirt.  The  above  description  is 
more  voluminous  than  the  garment,  which  would 
readily  go  into  an  ordinary  trousers  pocket. 

Bearskin  trousers,  reaching  from  the  top  of 
the  pelvic  bone  to  just  below  the  knee-cap.  These 
trousers  were  made  from  the  selected  skin  of  a 
yearling  or  two-year-old  bear  with  thin,  soft,  yet 
tough,  leather,  and  thick,  soft,  almost  wool-like 
fur.  Two  pieces,  carefully  cut  to  have  the  grain 
of  the  fur  running  down  and  the  thinner  parts 
to  come  in  the  crotch  between  the  legs,  make  the 


168  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

trousers.  The  only  seams  are  up  the  inside  of 
each  leg,  and  from  the  middle  of  the  waist  in 
front  down  through  the  crotch  and  up  to  the  mid- 
dle of  the  waist  in  the  back.  Triangular  bits  of 
tanned  sealskin  at  the  ends  and  intersections  of 
seams  reinforce  against  ripping.  At  the  top  of 
the  trousers  a  binding  of  tanned  sealskin  incloses 
a  thin,  strong  rawhide  line  as  a  draw-string,  by 
which  the  trousers  are  adjusted  closely  to  the 
wearer's  body.  The  bottom  of  the  legs  are  made 
just  as  small  as  will  allow  the  feet  to  go  through, 
and  when  the  trousers  are  pulled  up  into  place. 
they  fit  the  leg  closely  just  below  the  knee.  A 
band  of  bearskin  about  two  inches  wide  is  sewed 
round  the  bottom  of  each  leg,  which  in  very  cold, 
windy  weather,  in  drifting  or  deep  snow,  or  when 
the  wearer  is  in  danger  of  getting  into  the  water, 
is  turned  down,  and  the  tops  of  the  boots  are  tied 
firmly  over  it  to  make  a  tight  joint.  The  trousers 
,aro  lined  with  fine^Sflft  red  flannel._  There  are 
no  buttons,  hooks,  clips,  or  fastenings  of  any 
kind  in  these  trousers,  or  any  openings.  The  cord 
at  the  waist  is  adjusted  to  the  wearer,  and  by  a 
contraction  of  the  muscles  the  trousers  can  be  slid 
down  over  the  hips  to  mid-thigh  without  loosen- 
ing it. 

I  consider  this  garment  perfect  for  polar  work. 
It  is  impervious  to  cold, — I  do  not  recall  ever  be- 
ing chilly  for  a  moment  from  waist  to  knees, — 
is  almost  indestructible,  gives  the  wearer  perfect 


POLAB    CLOTHING 
Spring  and  Summer  working  costume.    Sealskin  coat,  bearskin  trousers, 

sealskin  l ts 


POLAR  CLOTHING  171 

freedom  of  movement,  and  possesses  the  quality, 
essential  in  every  garment  for  polar  work,  of  per- 
mitting the  fine  snow  driven  in  by  the  wind  to  be 
beaten  out  with  whip-handle  or  snow-knife. 

A  deerskin  hooded  coat  of  selected  autumn  skins 
of  doe  or  young  buck.  The  front  and  back  of  the 
coat  are  each  cut  from  a  single  skin,  the  front 
being  of  lighter  weight  than  the  back.  The 
head  of  the  back  skin  forms  the  foundation  of  the 
hood.  The  remainder  of  the  skins  furnish  ma- 
terial for  the  sleeves,  which  are  cut  in  a  way  to 
bring  the  thinner  parts  of  the  belly  skin  in  the 
armpits  and  inner  part  of  the  arm. 

In  length  the  coat  is  more  a  jacket  than  a  coat, 
the  bottom  of  it  coming  only  a  few  inches  below 
the  top  of  the  bearskin  trousers.  It  is  shorter  on 
the  hips  than  in  front  or  back,  wrhere  it  cuts  to  two 
rounded  points,  the  one  in  the  back  a  little  longer 
than  the  other.  In  this  way  the  action  of  the  legs 
in  walking,  running,  snow-shoeing,  climbing  press- 
ure ridges,  or  lifting  on  the  sledges  is  entirely  un- 
impeded. The  bottom  of  the  coat  must  fit  closely 
over  the  fur  of  the  trousers.  Eound  the  bottom 
of  the  coat  a  binding  of  tanned  sealskin,  as  at  the 
top  of  the  trousers,  contains  a  thin,  strong  raw- 
hide draw-string.  A  loop  of  this  projects  from 
the  point  of  the  coat  behind,  and  the  two  ends 
from  the  point  in  front.  By  passing  these  ends 
back  between  the  legs,  then  through  the  loop 
and  forward  again,  the  bottom  of  the  coat  can 


172  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

be  drawn  closely  into  the  fur  of  the  trousers, 
making  a  tight  joint  to  keep  out  driving  snow 
when  on  the  march,  or  the  cold  when  sleeping. 
To  make  this  joint  still  more  close,  an  inch- wide 
strip  of  fur  was  sewed  round  inside  the  bottom 
of  the  coat,  just  within  the  draw-string. 

At  the  wrists  the  sleeves,  which  should  come 
fully  to  the  hand,  are  made  just  as  small  as  pos- 
sible and  allow  the  hand  to  be  pushed  through 
them.  On  the  inside  a  two-inch-wide  band  of  fur, 
hair  inside,  is  sewed  like  the  packing  round  a  pis- 
ton-rod, to  keep  this  joint  tight  when  wrist  and 
hands  are  in  motion. 

The  face-opening  in  the  hood  is  made  just  large 
enough  to  allow  the  hood  to  be  pushed  back  from 
the  head  in  calm  weather.  Around  this  opening 
is  a  roll  of  soft  bearskin,  with  only  one  edge  sewed 
down.  This  is  partly  to  protect  the  face  from  the 
wind,  partly  to  serve  as  a  packing,  as  at  the  wrists 
and  bottom,  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  cold  air  or 
the  escape  of  warm. 

Worn  ordinarily  turned  down  like  a  coat-collar, 
in  bitter  winds,  this  bear-skin  roll  can  be  turned 
up  like  a  collar  to  form  a  wind-guard  for  the  eyes 
and  face. 

In  one  place — and  this  is  the  most  essential  fea- 
ture of  the  coat — it  does  not  fit  closely;  that  is, 
about  the  upper  arms.  Here  the  sleeves  are  am- 
ple in  size,  and  the  armholes  are  large  and  cut 
low,  so  that  by  dexterously  shifting  the  coat  as 


POLAR  CLOTHING  178 

far  to  one  side  as  possible  on  the  shoulders,  first 
one  arm,  then  the  other,  can  be  drawn  inside  the 
coat.  The  practical  application  of  this  is  invalu- 
able. If  in  using  the  whip  continuously,  or  re- 
pairing a  sledge,  the  hands  become  numb  from 
extreme  cold  or  because  the  mittens  are  damp,  it 
is  easy  to  draw  a  hand  and  arm  within  the  coat, 
leaving  the  mitten  in  the  sleeve,  place  the  numbed 
fingers  in  the  opposite  armpit — the  warmest  part 
of  the  body,  as  every  Eskimo  knows — until  it  is 
thoroughly  warmed,  then  treat  the  other  in  the 
same  way. 

In  camp,  after  the  evening  meal  of  pemmican, 
hard-tack,  and  tea  has  been  finished  and  the  day's 
notes  written  up,  both  arms  and  hands  are  drawn 
inside  the  coat, — leaving  the  mittens  to  plug  the 
sleeve  openings, — where  they  may  rest  by  the  side 
or  be  folded  across  the  chest  in  warmth  and  easy 
position.  The  coat  thus  becomes  the  upper  hall* 
of  a  light,  well-fitting  one-man  sleeping-bag,  that 
is  warm  and  dry  and  permits  entire  freedom  of 
movement. 

This  coat  has  no  buttons,  hooks,  toggles,  lacings, 
or  fastenings  of  any  kind,  and  it  gives  the  maxi- 
mum of  warmth  with  the  minimum  of  material 
and  weight.  As  with  the  bearskin  trousers,  drift- 
ing snow  and  the  frost  condensation  from  the 
breath  can  be  beaten  out  of  these  coats  completely. 

Deerskin  has  one  disadvantage;  if  the  leather 
becomes  wet  and  remains  so  for  a  day  or  two,  the 


17-A  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

f  fur  falls  off  in  patches.  The  hair  is  also  rather 
brittle.  For  this  reason  and  because  I  was  de- 
termined on  my  last  expedition  to  remain  in  the 
field  till  the  pole  was  secured,  I  fitted  each  mem- 
ber of  my  party  with  a  sheepskin  coat  of  the  same 
pattern,  details,  and  trimmings  as  the  deerskin 
ones,  but  using  tanned  sheepskin  of  the  kind 
known  in  the  trade  as  shearlings. 

Specially  soft,  perfect  skins,  light  of  leather 
and  thick  and  fine  of  wool,  were  selected,  and  such 
skins  furnish  the  best  substitute  for  deerskins  that 
I  know.  They  are  extremely  strong  and  durable, 
only  slightly  affected  by  being  wet,  and  are  nearly 
as  warm  and  only  a  little  heavier  than  deerskins. 
For  a  late-spring  or  early-summer  journey  they 
are  superior  to  deerskin.  They  have  one  disad- 
vantage :  snow  and  the  condensation  of  the  breath 
cannot  be  beaten  out  of  them  like  the  deerskins. 

Hareskin  stockings  of  the  thick,  soft,  fluffy  win- 
ter pelt  of  the  polar  hare,  with  the  fur  turned  in, 
with  bottoms  made  of  sealskin,  as  the  hareskin  is 
too  tender  for  the  heavy  wear  and  strain  on  this 
part. 

Boots  of  two  kinds.  A  pair  made  from  the  leg 
skin  of  the  polar  bear  for  the  bitter  temperature 
of  February  and  March,  and  a  pair  of  tanned  seal- 
skin for  the  milder  temperatures  of  April  and 
later.  Both  were  soled,  with  the  rough  skin  about 
one-eighth  of  an  inch  thick  from  the  back  of  the 
oogsook,    or    square-flipper-seal,    both    reached 


^ 


5 


POLAtt    CLOTHING 
Full    winter    sledging    ens! nine.      Deerskin    coat,    bearskin    trousers. 
and    deerskin   boots.      Have   worn    tliis   rig   with    comfort    al     —TA1/2°    P. 


ESKIMO    I  iocs 
The  two   nearly   white  dogs  on   the  left    are   the   type   North   Green 
land    Eskimo    I>ol'.      This    species,    direcl    descendants    of    the    Arctic 
white  wolf,  is  registered  by   the   American   Kennel   Club 


POLAR  CLOTHING  177 

nearly  to  the  knee,  and  both  had  at  the  top  a  raw- 
hide draw-string  which  permitted  their  being  tied 
air-  and  water-tight  over  the  flap  at  the  bottom 
of  the  bearskin  trousers. 

In  using  this  footgear, — which  for  one  who 
knows  how  I  consider  the  best  there  is,  and  for 
one  who  does  not  know  how  is  nearly  useless, — a 
thick,  even  pad,  or  cushion,  of  the  fine,  soft,  dry 
arctic  grass  is  arranged  in  the  bottom  of  the  boot, 
then  the  stocking  is  put  in  very  carefully,  and  a 
thin  layer  of  the  same  grass  placed  in  the  bottom 
of  the  stocking.  The  object  of  the  first  layer  of 
grass  is  to  keep  the  bottom  of  the  feet  warm  and 
to  protect  them  from  the  sharp  corners  of  the  ice. 
The  second  inner  layer  is  to  take  up  any  moisture 
from  the  feet  rather  than  have  it  absorbed  by  the 
fur  of  the  stocking. 

The  grass  sole  in  the  boot  should  last  several 
days;  the  one  in  the  stocking  may,  and  perhaps 
must,  be  replaced  after  every  march,  particularly 
if  the  work  is  hard. 

Inner  soles  of  the  skin  of  deer  or  sheep  or  bear 
may  be  a  substitute  for  the  grass,  though  none  is 
equal  to  it.  The  fur  inner  soles  are  more  easily 
arranged. 

Mittens  of  both  bearskin  and  deerskin,  the  for- 
mer for  coldest  weather.  Both  have  palm  of  seal- 
skin, and  when  the  hand  is  closed  in  grasping 
whip  or  upstander,  rifle  or  ice  lance,  it  is 
completely  protected  by  the  heavier  fur.    Inner 


178  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

mittens  of  blanketing  and  a  little  dry  grass  are 
used  to  absorb  the  moisture  from  the  hands,  and 
these  can  be  changed  after  every  march.  A  band 
of  deerskin  with  fur  inside  sewed  round  the  wrists 
over  the  pulse  helps  materially  in  keeping  one 
warm  when  traveling  in  extreme  cold. 

In  the  same  way  that  immersing  the  wrists  in 
cold  water  when  overheated  will  cool  one  off 
quickly  and  safely,  so  a  warm  covering  for  the 
pulses  assists  in  keeping  one  warm.  The  Eski- 
mos are  well  acquainted  with  this  fact. 

Long  as  has  been  this  description,  the  entire 
suit  weighs  only  a  few  ounces  over  twelve  pounds, 
essentially  the  same  as  the  weight  of  my  winter 
business  suit,  underwear,  etc.,  for  the  latitude  of 
Boston  or  Portland,  not  including  the  overcoat. 

In  such  a  suit  a  man,  seated  or  curled  up  in  the 
lee  of  an  ice  hummock,  with  arms  drawn  in  and 
face  bent  on  his  chest,  can  weather  in  comfort 
a  blizzard  at  -50  F.  In  a  snow  house,  on  scant 
rations,  such  a  suit  will  conserve  a  man's  heat 
and  strength  equivalent  to  several  days'  rations. 
Such  a  suit  renders  a  sleeping-bag  superfluous, 
thus  allowing  its  equivalent  weight  of  more 
pemmican  to  be  carried.  On  sea  ice  it  is  impera- 
tive as  a  matter  of  safety.  In  it  a  man  is  always 
ready  for  instant  action,  and  if  the  ice-floe  splits 
beneath  him  while  asleep,  he  can  escape. 


CHAPTER  VII 

UTILIZATION   OF   ESKIMOS   AND   DOGS 

NEXT  after  the  special  ship,  the  most  impor- 
tant tool  in  my  campaign  of  polar  work  has 
been  the  Eskimo,  as  dog  drivers.  A  fundamental 
principle  of  all  my  work  has  been  the  utilization  of 
the  Eskimos  and  dogs.  I  have  used  the  Eskimos  to 
a  greater  extent  than  any  other  explorer.  They 
have  formed  the  rank  and  file  of  my  sledging-  and 
hunting-parties,  and  have  built  my  sledges,  dog 
harnesses,  and  other  equipment ;  the  women  have 
skilfully  fashioned  the  fur  clothing,  essential  for 
comfort  in  these  regions. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  my  polar  work  I 
believed  that  these  most  northerly  human  beings 
in  the  world  could  afford  me  invaluable  assistance 
in  my  plans  for  exploration.  Later  I  had  a  fatal- 
istic feeling  that  the  Almighty  had  put  the  little 
tribe  in  this  particular  place  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  assisting  to  win  the  pole. 

Using  their  country  as  a  base  for  my  work,  I 
have  lived  among  and  worked  with  them  from 
1891  to  1909,  a  period  of  eighteen  years,  during 
which  time  I  made  a  thorough  study  of  their  lan- 
guage, their  mode  of  living,  the  food  they  ate,  the 

179 


180  SECRETS  OF  TOLAR  TRAVEL 

houses  they  built,  and  the  clothing  they  wore.  I 
made  these  people  my  friends,  training  them  in 
my  methods,  and  directing  the  modification  and 
concentration  of  their  own  methods  in  order  to 
make  them  more  useful  and  valuable  in  my  work. 
In  1909  there  was  not  a  man,  woman,  or  child  in 
the  whole  tribe  between  Cape  York  and  Etah  that 
I  did  not  know,  as  well  as  their  capacity  for  en- 
durance and  work.  In  my  last  expedition  it  was 
in  my  power  to  utilize  the  entire  energy  and  con- 
centrate the  entire  resources  of  the  tribe  on  my 
work  and  objects. 

In  powers  of  endurance,  in  ingenuity  and  intel- 
ligence in  adapting  themselves  to  their  surround- 
ings and  in  using  to  advantage  every  one  of  the 
all  too  few  possibilities  of  their  land,  they  are,  in 
my  opinion,  unequaled  by  any  other  known  abor- 
iginal race.  With  their  wonderful  knowledge  of 
ice  technic  and  their  ability  to  handle  sledges  and 
dogs,  the  Eskimos  were  really  more  necessary  as 
members  of  individual  parties  than  white  men; 
for  although  they  were  not  qualified  to  lead,  they 
could  follow  another's  lead  and  drive  dogs  much 
better  than  any  white  man. 

Eskimos  in  the  party  make  it  easier  for  the 
leader  in  various  ways.  A  party  of  Eskimos,  sent 
out  to  hunt,  to  scout,  or  to  establish  a  depot,  need 
only  to  be  told  what  they  are  going  out  for.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  go  into  every  detail  of  how  to  do 
it,  or  to  caution  them  in  regard  to  all  the  minutise 


* 


ESKIMOS  AND  DOGS  183 

of  field-work  and  its  dangers,  as  in  the  case  of  a 
party  of  white  men.  All  these  things  they  know, 
and  when  they  have  started,  the  leader  may  dis- 
miss them  from  his  mind  and  not  worry  a  minute 
about  them.  They  will  return  in  good  condition. 
In  this  way  they  count  very  pronouncedly  for  con- 
servation of  the  leader's  nerve  force.  If  I  turned 
back  a  party  of  three  or  four  Eskimos  from  Cape 
Hecla  or  Columbia,  or  two  or  three  marches  out 
on  the  ice,  to  make  their  way  back  to  Conger  or 
Payer  Harbor  or  Etah,  I  dismissed  them  from  my 
mind  as  soon  as  they  were  out  of  sight,  knowing 
that  they  would  make  the  trip  all  right.  In  the 
same  circumstances,  I  should  have  a  party  of  white 
men  on  my  mind  until  I  saw  them  again  weeks  or 
months  later. 

The  language  of  the  Eskimos  is  not  difficult  to 
acquire,  one  season  spent  among  them  being  suf- 
ficient to  gain  a  working  knowledge  of  it.  It  is 
necessary  for  explorers  to  learn  it,  as  the  Eski- 
mos have  little  or  no  desire  to  speak  English, 
and  consider  it  far  simpler  for  the  white  man  to 
speak  their  language. 

One  must  make  a  psychological  study  of  these 
people  properly  to  manage  them.  They  are  peo- 
ple of  peculiar  temperament,  very  much  like  chil- 
dren, and  should  be  handled  like  children,  firmly, 
but  gently.  They  are  as  easily  discouraged  as 
they  are  elated.  For  the  most  part  they  are  good 
natured,  but  occasionally  indulge  in  a  fit  of  sulks. 


181  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

It  is  no  use  at  all  to  get  vexed  at  a  sulky  Eskimo, 
but  one  can  usually  be  jollied  out  of  such  a  mood 
without  difficulty.  They  greatly  appreciate  kind- 
ness, but  are  very  quick  to  impose  upon  a  weak 
or  vacillating  person.  They  never  forget  a 
broken  promise  or  one  that  has  been  kept.  In  all 
my  dealings  with  them  I  have  made  it  a  point  to 
mean  exactly  what  I  said,  and  to  insist  upon 
things  being  done  according  to  my  instructions. 
If  I  promised  an  Eskimo  a  certain  reward  for  a 
task  well  done,  he  always  got  it.  If,  however,  I 
told  him  a  certain  punishment  would  follow  a  for- 
bidden course,  he  knew  it  would  come. 

By  way  of  encouraging  them  to  do  the  things  I 
wanted  done  and  keeping  them  interested  in  their 
work,  a  record  was  kept  of  the  game  brought  in  by 
every  Eskimo,  and  a  special  prize  went  to  the  best 
hunter.  The  man  who  secured  the  musk-ox  with 
the  best  set  of  horns  or  the  deer  with  the  finest 
antlers  got  a  special  reward,  as  did  the  man  who 
turned  out  the  best  sledge  or  proved  to  be  the 
best  all-round  man  on  a  long  sledge-trip.  In 
firmness,  tempered  with  love  and  gratitude,  I 
have  found  the  best  method  of  dealing  with  them, 
and  their  faithfulness  has  abundantly  attested  its 
efficacy. 

Some  may  get  the  idea  that  the  Eskimos  would 
serve  as  faithfully  as  they  did  me,  almost  any  one 
who  offered  them  gifts,  but  the  record  of  arctic  ex- 
ploration shows  that  such  is  not  the  case.    They 


ESKIMOS  AND  DOGS  185 

have  not  only  known  me  for  almost  twenty  years, 
but  I  have  saved  whole  villages  from  starvation, 
and  the  greatest  hope  and  ambition  of  the  children 
have  been  to  become  hunters  or  seamstresses  who 
would  some  day  be  rewarded  by  "Pearyaksoah." 

As  a  result  of  my  various  sojourns  among  them, 
the  entire  tribe  has  been  raised  from  the  most  ab- 
ject destitution  to  a  condition  of  relative  affluence. 
Twenty-five  years  ago  they  were  dependent  upon 
hunting  weapons  of  the  most  primitive  type. 
There  was  not  a  rifle  in  the  whole  tribe  when  I 
first  visited  it,  and  they  had  only  a  scant  supply 
of  knives,  which  they  had  obtained  from  whalers 
or  exploring  ships  visiting  their  shores  or  caught 
in  the  ice  near  Cape  York.  In  olden  times  these 
people  improvised  knives  from  the  iron  of  the 
great  Cape  York  meteorites  that  I  brought  home 
in  the  summers  of  1896  and  1897.  Pieces  of  bone 
or  ivory  formed  the  handles  of  these  knives,  and 
in  a  groove  of  the  handle  small  fragments  of  the 
meteorite  were  ingeniously  set  to  form  the  cutting 
edge.  Very  small  and  crude  an  instrument  it  ap- 
peared to  be,  yet  it  was  a  great  improvement  over 
the  bits  of  flint  which  in  still  earlier  times  had  been 
the  only  implements  the  tribe  possessed  for  cut- 
ting purposes. 

These  iron  knives  had  been  discarded  several 
generations  previous  to  my  first  trip  north,  but  in 
the  spring  of  1895  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  run 
across  one  of  these  relics  which  a  woman  of  the 


186  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

tribe  bad  uneartbed  in  the  interior  of  an  old  igloo 
wbich  sbe  was  rebuilding  for  winter  use.  A  few 
montbs  later  a  man  discovered  the  handle  of  an- 
other, and  an  old  Eskimo  identified  them  both,  the 
former  as  a  woman's  knife,  the  latter  a  man's. 
They  were  the  only  ones  of  their  kind  known  to 
any  of  the  tribe. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  there  were  few  kayaks, 
or  skin  canoes,  among  the  Eskimos,  and  the  man 
who  owned  a  spear-shaft  or  a  harpoon-shaft  made 
of  a  single  piece  of  wood  was  well  off  indeed. 
There  were  also  many  women  who  had  no  needle, 
and  had  to  do  all  their  sewing  with  the  aid  of  a 
bone  awl.  They  first  made  a  hole  in  the  garment 
with  this,  and  then  drew  the  thread  through.  For 
thread  they  used  the  sinews  of  the  reindeer  and 
narwhal. 

Conditions  are  now  different  among  these  peo- 
ple. Instead  of  lacking  every  accessory  and  ap- 
pliance of  civilization,  every  man  and  boy  owns 
his  canoe;  there  is  an  ample  supply  of  cutlery, 
knives,  hatchets,  saws,  cooking-utensils,  and  nee- 
dles. All  the  men  have  their  own  repeating-rifles 
and  breech-loading  shot-guns  and  plenty  of  am- 
munition, and  every  hunter  has  wood  for  his 
sledge,  his  lance,  his  harpoon,  and  his  seal  spear. 
As  a  result  of  owning  better  weapons,  the  condi- 
tion of  the  whole  tribe  has  improved.  The  effi- 
ciency of  the  hunters  is  double  what  it  used  to  be, 
thus  insuring  a  more  abundant  food-supply  and 


mm 


ra      i 

DECK     SCENE    ON    THE    "ROOSEVELT"     (NOT    A    PINK    TEA) 


50ME    (>!•'    MY     II  I    \  I  ERS 


ESKIMOS  AND  DOGS  189 

better  clothing.  Warmly  clad  and  well  fed,  they 
can  meet  more  easily  with  hardships  which  are 
their  daily  lot. 

I  have  a  sincere  interest  in  and  affection  for 
these  children  of  the  North,  and  have  tried  to  help 
and  instruct  them  to  cope  more  effectively  with 
their  inhospitable  surroundings  and  to  avoid 
weakening  their  confidence  in  themselves  and 
their  content  with  their  lot  in  life.  How  to  care 
for  themselves,  how  to  treat  simple  diseases, 
wounds,  and  other  accidents,  are  some  of  the  fun- 
damentals which  I  have  attempted  to  instil  in  their 
minds.  In  exchange  for  dogs,  skins,  or  other  sup- 
plies necessary  for  my  work,  or  as  rewards  for 
service  rendered,  I  have  always  given  them  the 
very  best  articles  and  material  which  could  be 
bought. 

Gustav  Olsen,  a  Danish  missionary  at  North 
Star  Bay,  Northern  Greenland,  in  his  report  to 
the  State  Department  of  Denmark  in  1910  made 
the  following  statement  in  regard  to  the  improved 
conditions  of  the  Eskimos: 

The  Eskimos  here,  both  his  companions  and  others,  have  a 
large  number  of  articles  of  utility  of  various  kinds,  which  they 
have  obtained  from  Peary,  so  that  they,  in  regard  to  arms, 
tools,  etc.,  are  better  provided  than  their  countrymen  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  country. 

The  Eskimos  have  always  been  quick  to  grasp 
the  objects  of  my  expeditions  and  in  the  later 
ones  eager  to  concentrate  all  their  energy  upon 


190  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

the  task  of  achieving  these  ends.  As  they  have 
come  into  contact  with  my  parties  they  have 
adapted  themselves  easily  and  readily  to  the  use 
of  various  tools.  To  be  able  to  depend  on  the  na- 
tives to  do  the  work  of  a  white  man  with  the  tools 
of  a  white  man  means  much  to  an  explorer  anx- 
ious to  avoid  taking  north  a  party  which  would  be 
so  large  as  to  be  unwieldy. 

An  arctic  traveler  in  winter-time  is  often 
obliged  to  sleep  in  an  Eskimo  igloo,  an  experience 
which  is  not  soon  forgotten.  These  igloos  are 
made  of  stones  and  earth,  and  are  all  built  on  the 
same  general  plan,  though  an  Eskimo  can  easily 
tell  by  the  workmanship  just  who  made  each  one. 

Some  of  the  igloos  are  generations  old.  Usu- 
ally existing  igloos  are  used,  occasionally  new  ones 
are  built.  Sometimes  this  is  done  because  an  Es- 
kimo, usually  a  good  hunter,  wishes  to  get  away 
from  his  fellows  in  order  not  to  help  support  less 
energetic  ones,  and  so  builds  his  igloo  in  a  pre- 
viously unoccupied  locality;  sometimes  because 
an  unusual  number  of  families  selects  the  neigh- 
borhood of  an  expedition's  headquarters  for  a 
winter's  residence.  When  this  happens,  the  work 
is  usually  done  leisurely  in  September,  while  the 
family  is  still  occupying  the  summer  tent.  Then 
when  really  cold  weather  sets  in  the  family  moves 
into  the  new  house  and  strikes  its  tent. 

A  month  is  ample  time  to  erect  a  winter  home 
for  an  Eskimo  family.    A  hole  is  first  dug  in  the 


ESKIMOS  AND  DOGS  191 

ground  to  form  the  floor  of  the  house.  Around 
this  walls  of  stones,  filled  in  with  bits  of  moss,  are 
built.  The  roof  is  composed  of  long  flat  stones 
placed  across  the  top  of  the  walls  and  covered 
with  earth,  the  whole  structure  finally  being 
banked  with  snow.  The  roof  is  of  the  cantilever 
style,  the  stones  being  weighted  and  counter- 
weighted  at  the  outer  edges.  When  finished,  the 
house  is  ten  or  twelve  feet  long,  eight  or  ten  feet 
wide,  and  usually  six  feet  high.  A  small  window 
space  is  inserted  in  front,  and  covered  with  the 
thin  intestinal  membrane  of  the  seal.  A  hole  in 
the  floor  leading  into  a  tunnel  anywhere  from  ten 
to  twenty-five  feet  long  forms  the  entrance. 

A  raised  platform  at  one  end  of  an  igloo  serves 
as  a  bed  for  the  entire  family.  Sometimes  the 
earth's  surface  forms  the  platform,  and  the  floor 
space  in  front  of  it  is  made  by  digging  out  the 
earth  for  a  depth  of  a  foot  and  a  half.  Some- 
times long,  flat  stones,  supported  by  stones,  are 
used ;  but  more  often  than  not  one  finds  a  platform 
of  lumber  in  those  built  since  the  advent  of  lum- 
ber in  this  land.  Sledge-loads  of  grass  are 
brought  in  and  plaoed  on  the  platform,  and  with 
sealskins  and  the  skin  of  the  deer  or  bear  they 
have  a  good  mattress.  For  covering,  deerskins 
are  used. 

A  soapstone  lamp  on  a  large  stone  in  front  of 
the  platform,  where  it  can  be  tended  by  the  woman 
at  night,  burns  day  and  night,  warming  the  igloo  so 


192  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

that  little  clothing  is  needed,  and  also  serving  as 
a  stove  for  cooking.  For  fuel,  for  light,  heat,  and 
cooking,  small  pieces  of  blubber  are  cut,  and  laid 
in  the  shallow  lamp  close  to  a  long  wick  of  pul- 
verized moss.  The  burning  moss,  trying  out 
the  oil  of  the  blubber,  gives  a  remarkably  hot 
flame.  Formerly  they  used  flint  and  steel  from 
a  vein  of  pyrite  for  ignition,  and  pieces  of  soap- 
stone,  of  which  there  are  a  few  veins  in  their 
country,  were  used  for  lamps  and  pots.  They 
now  are  supplied  with  matches  and  lamps  and 
cooking-utensils  of  metal. 

While  a  night  spent  in  one  of  these  ill-smelling 
homes  with  a  family  of  Eskimos  is  not  exactly 
pleasant,  a  man  engaged  in  polar  work  cannot  be 
too  particular,  and  warmth,  supper,  and  sleep  even 
amid  such  surroundings  are  welcome  to  a  tired, 
cold  and  hungry  traveler  at  the  end  of  a  long 
march. 

In  the  spring  these  houses  become  damp  and 
unfit  for  habitation.  The  roofs  are  removed  to 
dry  the  interior,  and  the  family  takes  up  its  resi- 
dence in  a  tupik,  or  tent  of  skin,  from  June  to 
September.  Tents  are  made  of  ten  or  twelve 
sealskins  sewed  together.  This  large  piece  is 
stretched  on  poles,  with  the  hair  inside,  and  is 
high  in  front  and  slopes  toward  the  back,  the 
edges  being  weighted  down  with  stones.  The 
floor  of  earth  varies  according  to  the  size  of  the 


<v 


ESKIMOS  AND  DOGS  195 

family  from  six  to  eight  feet  in  width  and  from 
eight  to  ten  feet  in  length. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  things  we  have  learned 
from  the  Eskimos  is  the  building  of  snow  houses, 
a  necessity  when  a  party  is  in  the  field  during  the 
winter  months.  Ajmowjgloo  can  be  built  by  four 
good  men  in  about  an  hour.  First  blocks  of  snow 
arc  cut  out  with  strong,  stiff  saw-knives  about  a 
foot  and  a  half  long,  with  saw-teeth  on  one  side 
and  a  smooth  cutting-edge  on  the  other.  The 
blocks  for  the  bottom  layer  are  sometimes  two  or 
three  feet  long  by  two  feet  high,— sometimes 
smaller, — while  those  for  each  succeeding  layer 
are  made  smaller  and  less  heavy.  If  the  snow  is 
hard,  the  blocks  need  to  be  only  six  or  eight  inches 
thick;  but  when  the  snow  is  soft,  they  must  be 
thicker  in  order  to  hold  their  shape.  Each  block 
is  placed  on  a  curve  to  make  an  ovoid  when  all  are 
put  together.  For  a  party  of  three  men  the  in\ 
terior  of  an  igloo  should  be  about  eight  by  five  I 
feet;  for  five  men  these  measurements  should  be  j 
increased  to  ten  by  eight  feet  to  allow  for  a  wider  ' 
bed  platform.  J 

If  possible  a  sloping  snow-bank  is  selected  for 
the  site  of  the  house,  and  when  enough  snow  blocks 
have  been  cut  out,  an  Eskimo  takes  his  place  here, 
and  as  the  rest  bring  up  the  blocks,  setting  them  on 
edge  end  to  end  in  an  ovoid  about  him,  he  fits  and 
joints  them  with  a  snow  knife. 


196  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

The  second  row  is  placed  on  the  first  with  a 
slight  inward  slope,  each  block  being  held  in  posi- 
tion by  the  one  on  either  side.  On  this  another 
layer  of  blocks  is  set ;  and  so  on,  each  slanting  in- 
ward a  little  more  than  the  tier  below  it,  until  at 
last  there  is  an  opening  at  the  top  just  large 
enough  to  take  one  block. 

The  Eskimo  in  the  igloo  shapes  a  block,  pushes 
it  through  the  opening  endwise,  reaches  out,  turns 
it  over,  and  lowers  it  into  its  place,  afterward 
chipping  it  off  with  his  knife  until  it  fits  perfectly 
tight.  At  one  side  of  the  igloo,  at  the  bottom,  an 
aperture,  large  enough  to  permit  a  man  to  crawl 
through,  is  cut.  At  the  farther  end  of  the  igloo 
the  slope  is  leveled  off  for  a  bed  platform,  and  a 
space  in  front  of  it  is  dug  out  for  standing  room 
and  cooking-utensils.  All  the  superfluous  snow 
is  then  thrown  out  the  door,  and  the  cooking-outfit 
and  sleeping-gear  are  brought  inside.  When  the 
party  turns  in  for  the  night,  the  entrance  is  closed 
by  a  large  cake  of  snow. 

It  is  doubtful  if  the  North  Pole  would  ever  have 
been  discovered  with  our  present  means  and  fa- 
cilities but  for  the  help  of  the  faithful  Eskimos, 
and  it  is  an  absolute  certainty  that  it  would  still 
be  undiscovered  but  for  the  Eskimo  dog  to  furnish 
traction  power  for  our  sledges,  thus  enabling  us 
to  carry  supplies  where  nothing  else  could  carry 
them.  All  kinds  of  methods  and  devices  such  as 
balloons,  motor-cars,  ponies,  trained  polar  bears, 


ESKIMOS  AND  DOGS  197 

reindeer,  etc.,  have  been  suggested  in  connection 
with  the  attainment  of  the  pole,  but  all  are  un- 
suitable. 

These  Whale  Sound  Eskimos  could  be  of  great 
value  in  antarctic  work,  but  there  are  probably 
not  more  than  four  men  living  who  have  experi- 
ence to  use  them. 

The  whole  animus  of  the  polar  regions  is  against 
machinery,  and  those  regions  are  the  last  places 
in  the  world  in  which  to  try  out  or  develop  an  un- 
tried device.  Even  devices  which  work  satisfac- 
torily in  temperate  regions  are  more  than  likely 
to  fall  down  when  called  upon  to  perform  under 
the  handicap  of  polar  conditions. 

Sooner  or  later — and  usually  sooner — any  ma- 
chine will  fall  down  in  polar  work,  and  when  it 
does  so  it  is  simply  a  mass  of  old  junk  which 
neither  men  nor  dogs  can  eat,  and  which  cannot 
even  be  burned  to  cook  a  pot  of  tea. 

The  use  of  ponies,  for  which  the  British  have 
shown  a  great  predilection  in  antarctic  work,  is 
not  as  efficient  or  simple  as  the  use  of  dogs. 

Assume  that  a  pony  is  equivalent  in  tractive 
force  and  weight  to  a  team  of  ten  Eskimo 
dogs,  which  is  approximately  correct.  Then  as 
between  two  expeditions  having  an  equal  amount 
of  tractive  force  and  equal  weight  of  motors,  one 
in  the  form  of  ponies  and  the  other  in  the  shape 
of  dogs,  the  former  will  have  ten  motors  and  the 
other  one  hundred,  and  the  motors  of  the  former 


198  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

will  each  weigh  ten  times  as  much  as  the  motors 
of  the  latter.  Every  motor  that  one  expedition 
loses  means  a  loss  of  ten  per  cent  of  its  tractive 
force,  while  every  motor  that  the  other  loses 
means  only  one  per  cent  loss. 

In  crossing  thin  sea  ice  the  concentrated  weight 
of  a  pony  will  cause  him  to  break  through  with 
almost  certainty  of  loss,  while  on  the  same  ice  the 
dispersed  weight  of  ten  dogs  will  enable  them  to 
cross  in  conuplete  safety.  On  the  Antarctic  Bar- 
rier and  the  great  interior  snow-cap,  in  crossing 
the  snow  covering  of  the  deadly  masked  crevasses, 
a  pony  will  break  through  and  be  lost  when  a 
team  of  ten  dogs  will  cross  and  never  know  the 
crevasse  existed. 

Dogs  require  no  assistance  during  the  march 
and  no  care  or  shelter  at  the  camps,  and  when  it 
comes  to  the  matter  of  food,  then  everything  is  in 
favor  of  the  dogs.  With  dogs  as  motors,  the  food 
for  the  men  and  fuel  for  the  motors  are  the  same 
— pemmican.  With  ponies  it  is  a  different  and  a 
bulkier  article.  When  a  pony  dies,  or  is  no  longer 
needed  as  a  result  of  the  reduced  loads,  he  can 
be  eaten  by  the  men  of  the  party,  but  is  not  avail- 
able as  fuel  for  the  other  ponies.  When  a  dog  is 
no  longer  needed,  he  can  be  eaten  by  the  party 
or  used  for  fuel  for  the  other  motors,  and  in  this 
way  not  an  ounce  of  material  is  wasted. 

With  two  kinds  of  food,  pemmican  and  dog 
meat,  at  his  command,  both  equally  available  for 


ESKIMOS  AND  DOGS  199 

dog  or  man,  the  leader  of  an  expedition,  watching 
his  party  with  the  same  care  that  an  engineer 
watches  a  running  motor,  can  adjust  his  food- 
supply  to  meet  varying  conditions  and  without 
wastage.  He  can  put  his  party  on  reduced  ra- 
tions and  keep  up  the  number  of  his  dogs  to  in- 
crease the  speed  and  take  all  work  except  that  of 
walking  from  his  men,  or  he  can  feed  the  dogs  to 
each  other,  and  so  conserve  the  amount  of  pem- 
mican  available  for  the  men  alone  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  journey.  In  this  way  every  ounce  of  food  in 
the  party,  whether  in  tins  or  "on  the  hoof,"  is 
utilized,  and  can  be  used  at  the  time  and  in  the 
way  that  will  be  most  effective.  I  could  dilate  at 
very  considerable  length  on  details  of  this  method, 
but  it  seems  as  if  its  simplicity,  efficiency,  and 
flexibility  must  be  self-evident  to  every  reader. 
A  leader  who  has  once  tried  this  method  will 
never  handicap  himself  with  any  other.  With 
apologies  for  my  assurance  in  the  matter,  I  may 
say  it  is  absolutely  the  only  method. 

The  whole  difference  between  Amundsen's 
dash  to  the  South  Pole — a  picnic  as  he  character- 
ized it,  and  actually  that  relatively  as  antarctic 
trips  go— and  Scott's  heroic  struggle  and  tragic 
finish  may  be  expressed  in  four  letters,  dogs. 

This  is  said  not  in  a  spirit  of  criticism,  but  of 
sorrowful  fact.  Amundsen  and  his  men,  when 
they  made  camp  at  the  end  of  each  march,  were 
tired  in  every  bone,  as  is  every  member  of  every 


200  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

serious  polar  sledge-party;  for  handling  a  sledge 
is  like  handling  a  breaking-up  plow  in  new  land. 
But  the  dogs  had  done  the  major  part  of  the  work, 
and  the  men  still  had  a  reserve  of  physical  and 
nerve  force  left.  When  Scott's  ponies  failed  him, 
he  and  his  men  dragged  their  hearts  out  pulling 
the  sledges,  and  when  they  made  camp  at  the 
end  of  a  march  they  were  all  in.  When  finally, 
within  eleven  miles  of  their  depot  of  supplies,  the 
blizzard  caught  them  at  the  physical  dead  center, 
there  was  not  an  ounce  of  reserve  force  left  in  the 
entire  party  to  permit  reaching  the  depot.  And 
so  they  died.     Ah,  the  pity  of  it ! 

When  dogs  as  tractive  force  are  compared  with 
men,  then  the  results  are  startling,  as  the  follow- 
ing instances  will  show. 

The  winter  quarters  of  the  Alert  of  the  British 
Arctic  Expedition  of  1875-76,  and  of  the  Roose- 
velt in  the  two  expeditions  of  1905-06  and  1908-09 
were  essentially  the  same,  Cape  Sheridan  on  the 
north  shore  of  Grant  Land.  Northwest  along  the 
coast  were  Capes  Joseph  Henry,  Hecla,  and  Col- 
umbia. The  British  parties,  using  man  power  for 
dragging  sledges,  were  five  and  more  days  go- 
ing to  Cape  Henry  in  various  trips.  My  parties, 
using  dogs,  went  regularly  to  Cape  Hecla  beyond 
Cape  Henry  in  two  marches,  and  returned  in  one. 

Aldrich,  in  one  of  the  principal  spring  sledge- 
journeys  of  the  expedition,  was  twenty-seven 
days  to  Cape  Columbia.     My  parties,  with  loaded 


ESKIMOS  AND  DOGS  201 

sledges,  made  it  regularly  in  four  marches,  re- 
turning in  two.  Bartlett,  on  one  occasion  in  the 
autumn  work,  came  back  the  entire  distance  in  one 
march.  My  North  Pole  party,  after  reaching  land 
and  resting  and  feeding  men  and  dogs  for  two 
days  at  Cape  Columbia,  made  the  journey  to 
Sheridan  in  two  marches. 

Even  when  compared  with  the  journey  of  Lock- 
wood  and  Brainerd  from  Conger  to  Lockwood 
Island,  using  southern  Greenland  dogs  and  driver, 
the  journey  of  MacMillan  and  Borup  along  the 
same  coast  from  Cape  Sheridan  to  Cape  Morris 
Jesup  is  instructive.  Lockwood  and  Brainerd 
were  twenty-five  marches  from  Conger  to  Lock- 
wood  Island  and  sixteen  marches  on  the  return. 

MacMillan  and  Borup  went  from  Cape  Sheridan 
(nearly  the  same  distance  as  Conger)  to  Cape 
Jesup  forty  miles  beyond  Lockwood  Island,  in 
much  less  time  and  on  the  return  covered  the  dis- 
tance in  eight  marches  averaging  thirty-four  miles 
per  march. 

In  1911  I  was  in  London  with  Scott  for  two 
weeks  before  his  expedition  started  for  the  South 
Pole,  was  on  his  ship,  the  Terra  Nova,  the  day 
she  steamed  out  of  the  London  docks,  and  I  talked 
dogs  and  dogs  with  him,  but  without  results. 
Possibly  it  was  too  late  for  him  to  make  any 
change.  I  have  repeatedly  talked  dogs  to  Shackle- 
ton,  and  before  his  last  expedition  urged  upon  him 
the  desirability  of  dogs,  dogs,  and  yet  more  dogs. 


202  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

I  was  met  by  the  statement  that  dogs  could  not 
be  driven  in  the  driving  snow  that  sweeps  along 
the  surface  of  the  antarctic  ice-cap.  But  for  my 
experience  in  my  earlier  expeditions  across  the 
Greenland  ice-cap,  where  identical  conditions  are 
encountered,  I  might  have  accepted  this.  In  my 
Greenland  work  members  of  my  parties  drove 
their  dogs  day  after  day  in  a  low,  blinding  drift  of 
snow  sweeping  along  the  surface  of  the  ice-cap 
with  the  steadiness  of  a  stream  of  water. 

I  was  interested  very  recently  to  hear  Shackle- 
ton  in  San  Francisco,  in  the  first  public  lecture 
given  after  his  return  from  his  last  antarctic  ex- 
pedition, express  unreservedly  his  conversion  to 
a  belief  in  dogs. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Eskimo  dog  is  abso- 
lutely the  only  motor  for  polar  work,  and  will  re- 
main so  until  superseded  by  the  aeroplane. 

These  sturdy,  magnificent  dogs  can  do  a  greater 
amount  of  work  on  less  food  than  any  other  ani- 
mal. They  eat  meat  and  meat  only,  and  for  water 
they  eat  snow.  Even  a  month-old  puppy  is  hardy 
enough  to  stand  the  coldest  weather,  and  it  is  not 
necessary  to  house  them  at  any  season  of  the  year. 
In  appearance  as  well  as  in  usefulness  they  are 
remarkable  creatures.  The  males  weigh  on  an 
average  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  pounds,  the 
females  of  course  being  rather  smaller.  These 
dogs,  said  by  some  scientists  to  be  descendants  of 
the  arctic  wolf,  are  of  one  breed  only,  but  are 


* 


ESK  I  M<)    KING    DOC 


ESKIMOS  AND  DOGS  205 

found  in  a  variety  of  markings  and  colors,  gray, 
black,  yellow,  brown,  and  mottled.  The  pure 
blooded  type  dogs  are  marked  like  the  arctic  white 
wolf.  In  my  opinion  there  is  no  handsomer 
dog  to  be  found  than  one  of  these  Eskimo  dogs, 
with  its  pointed  muzzle,  sharp-pointed  ears,  and 
wide-set  eyes,  shaggy  coat,  and  bushy  tail,  and  as 
a  rule  they  are  obedient  and  affectionate  as  any 
dog. 

In  purchasing  dogs  at  Cape  York  I  have  always 
secured  enough  to  allow  for  the  loss  of  sixty  per 
cent,  of  them  by  accident  or  sickness.  It  is  im- 
possible to  count  on  the  length  of  an  Eskimo  dog's 
life.  They  will  go  -through  the  severest  hard- 
ships, work  hard  on  almost  nothing  to  eat,  and 
stand  exposure  to  the  worst  storms,  and  then  with 
plenty  to  eat,  nothing  to  do,  will  suddenly  die  or 
be  taken  with  piblokto,  a  malady  which  has  threat- 
ened at  times  to  completely  cripple  my  expedi- 
tions and  to  wipe  out  one  of  the  most  valuable 
resources  of  the  Eskimos,  and  for  which  there  is 
no  known  remedy.  A  victim  of  this  dread  disor- 
der refuses  all  nourishment  and  howls  and  snaps,  ' 
biting  any  other  dog  it  comes  in  contact  with,  and 
often  dies  of  convulsions  the  same  day  it  is  at- 
tacked. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

UTILIZING   THE   RESOURCES   OF   THE    COUNTRY 

ONE  of  the  basic  principles  of  all  my  polar 
expeditions  has  been  to  depend  upon  the 
country  itself  for  the  fresh-meat  supply.  To 
this  fact  is  due  the  entire  absence  of  scurvy  on 
all  my  voyages.  Contrary  to  a  general  idea,  the 
polar  regions  of  northern  Greenland,  Ellesmere 
Land,  and  Grant  Land  have  for  the  experienced 
hunter  a  considerable  and  most  attractive  fauna, 
and  while  there  are  certain  parts  where  it  is  vir- 
tually impossible  to  find  even  so  much  as  a  stray 
polar  hare,  there  are  other  regions  where  a  very 
fair  amount  of  meat  can  be  obtained  in  a  com- 
paratively short  time  by  those  knowing  how,  and 
acquainted  with  polar  topography  and  the  habits 
of  polar  animals. 

The  polar  bill  of  fare  includes  fish,  flesh,  and 
fowl  in  considerable  variety.  The  walrus  and  seal 
of  the  Eskimo  are,  of  course,  known  to  every  child. 
Both  furnish  a  strong  and  healthy  diet,  but  few 
white  men  become  really  fond  of  it.  There  are, 
however,  other  animals  in  the  region  which  fur- 
nish delicacies  that  would  grace  the  table  of  the 
finest  hotel  in  any  great  city,  as  the  musk-ox,  rein- 

206 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      207 

deer,  and  polar  hare.  Polar  bear,  if  young,  makes 
a  very  acceptable  steak.  At  any  age  the  meat  is 
not  at  all  disagreeable  when  frozen  and  eaten  raw^ 

Of  the  sea  animals,  in  addition  to  the  walrus 
and  the  ringed  or  floe-seal,  there  are  the  harp- 
and  the  square-flipper-seal,  the  flesh  of  both  of 
which  possesses  a  much  less  pronounced  bouquet 
than  the  walrus  and  the  floe-seal. 

Of  birds  there  are  various  kinds;  the  most 
abundant  are  the  little  auks,  and  next  the  Brun- 
nich's  guillemot.  Then  there  are  the  eider-duck, 
the  long-tailed  duck,  the  brant,  and  the  king-eider. 
It  is  possible  also  in  some  localities  to  get  an  oc- 
casional mess  of  ptarmigan,  the  arctic  white 
grouse.  The  various  species  of  gulls  are  consid- 
ered fine  eating  by  the  Eskimos,  but  they  are  a 
bit  rank  to  the  white  man. 

Of  fish  there  are  two  kinds,  the  grayling  and  a 
species  of  char  that  we  called  rather  affection- 
ately salmon-trout.  In  September,  1900,  this  lat- 
ter fish  kept  alive  for  about  ten  days  my  party  of 
six  men  and  twenty-three  dogs.  It  is  undoubt- 
edly the  finest  fish  food  to  be  found  anywhere,  in 
color  a  pale  pink,  like  salmon  or  unripe  water- 
melon. Living  in  water  never  warmer  than  forty 
degrees,  perhaps  never  above  thirty-five  degrees, 
it  is  the  sweetest,  firmest  fish  fiber  in  the  world. 

It  is  no  small  task  to  secure  a  supply  of  meat 
sufficient  to  keep  hundreds  of  dogs  alive  and  in 
good  condition  all  winter,  and  to  provide  fresh 


208  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

meat  for  a  crew  of  over  twenty  and  some  fifty  Es- 
kimos. Hunting  parties  must  be  kept  constantly 
in  the  field  during  the  autumn  months  to  meet  the 
demand. 

The  mainstay  in  the  way  of  food  for  the  dogs 
is  walrus,  and  weighing  anywhere  from  1000  to 
3000  pounds,  they  provide  the  maximum  of  meat 
at  a  minimum  of  time  and  energy.  During  the 
months  of  July,  August,  and  September  these  ani- 
mals are  to  be  found  in  large  herds  in  Wolsten- 
holme  and  Whale  Sounds,  where  they  assemble  to 
feed  on  the  shell-fish  abounding  in  those  shallow 
waters.  Here  they  may  be  seen  basking  in  the 
sun  on  the  ice-floes  and  cakes  of  ice,  singly,  or  in 
groups  ranging  from  two  or  three  up  into  the 
hundreds.  I  have  seen  anywhere  from  one  hun- 
dred to  one  hundred  and  fifty  walrus  on  one  large 
ice-pan,  with  an  equally  large  number  in  the  sur- 
rounding water;  but  only  on  Littleton  Island,  in 
Smith  Sound,  and  along  the  shore  of  the  main- 
land opposite  have  I  evei  seen  them  on  the  rocks. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  during  the  summer 
months  males  only,  and  chiefly  the  old  ones,  are  to 
be  found  in  Wolstenholme  Sound,  the  females, 
calves,  and  young  males  haunting  the  waters 
about  Littleton  Island  and  Oomenak  Sound. 

A  few  walrus  are  secured  by  the  Eskimos  in 
these  waters  during  the  summer,  but  the  bulk  of 
the  annual  catch,  at  least  two-thirds  and  possibly 
three-quarters,  is  made  at  Cape  Chalon  in  the 


»-* 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      211 

spring.  Virtually  all  the  walrus  of  this  region 
winter  in  the  open  north  water  <>ff  Cape  Chalon, 
sometimes  separated  from  the  cape  by  ten  miles 

of  ice,  sometimes  by  twenty-five.  Strong  winds 
break  up  the  ice  along  the  edge  of  the  north  water 
early  in  February,  making  the  distance  for  an 
Eskimo  to  drag  his  sledge  from  Cape  ( 'halon  just 
so  much  less.  This  breaking  up  of  the  border  ice 
is  usually  followed  by  low  temperatures,  which  in 
a  few  hours  make  the  new  ice  strong  enough  to 
support  a  sledge  and  dogs.  The  hunters  leave 
the  cape  early  in  the  morning  and,  driving  out 
to  the  edge  of  the  old  ice,  tie  their  dogs,  and  with 
a  lance,  harpoon,  and  line  begin  a  search  out  on 
the  new  ice  for  the  walrus.  On  sighting  an  ani- 
mal, a  hunter  harpoons  it,  takes  a  turn  of  the 
line  round  the  harpoon-shaft,  sticks  the  harpoon 
into  the  ice,  and  braces  it  with  his  foot,  while  a 
companion  lances  the  lungs  or  heart  of  the  huge 
creature.  As  soon  as  the  walrus  is  dead  it  is 
pulled  out  upon  the  ice,  cut  up,  and  placed  on  the 
sledges,  which  have  meanwhile  been  brought  out, 
and  is  ready  to  be  carried  back  to  the  settlement. 
These  hunts  are  continued  until  late  in  the  spring, 
and  large  quantities  of  meat  are  secured. 

Hunting  walrus  in  a  small  whale-boat,  however, 
furnishes  the  most  exciting  and  dangerous  sport 
north  of  the  arctic  circle.  With  an  Eskimo  crew 
at  the  oars;  a  sailor  at  the  steering-oar;  two  other 
Eskimos,  experts  with  the  harpoon,  in  the  bow; 


212  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

an  experienced  man  in  the  bow  with  a  rifle;  and 
Bartlett  or  me  in  the  stern,  just  in  front  of  the 
man  at  the  steering-oar,  we  considered  a  boat  well 
manned.  In  the  way  of  equipment  there  should 
be  at  least  three  repeating-rifles,  with  abundance 
of  ammunition;  six  or  eight  harpoons,  with  lines 
and  floats,  spare  boat-hooks,  and  a  heavy,  short- 
handled  ax  for  each  man,  for  smashing  the  wal- 
rus in  the  face  when  they  try  to  come  aboard.  A 
good  supply  of  old  coats  or  blankets  should  be 
taken  along  for  plugging  up  holes  punched  in  the 
boat  by  the  tusks  of  the  walrus. 

At  the  faintest  suggestion  of  smoke  walrus  will 
quickly  disappear  in  the  water,  and  a  party  near- 
ing  a  herd  of  these  huge  creatures  by  steamer 
should  keep  to  leeward  of  them  if  possible,  and 
take  to  the  small  boats  when  still  far  enough 
away  to  prevent  its  presence  being  detected  by 
the  animals.  The  whale-boats  should  always  be 
white,  to  give  an  appearance  of  cakes  of  ice, 
and  the  oar-locks  carefully  muffled  to  reduce 
the  noise  of  approach  to  a  minimum.  It  is  a  com- 
paratively easy  thing  to  harpoon  a  walrus  asleep 
on  an  ice-pan,  and  sometimes  by  using  small  bergs 
as  a  screen  to  hide  behind,  a  party  can  approach 
to  within  a  few  yards  of  a  herd  and  harpoon  sev- 
eral before  they  are  fully  awake.  In  most  cases, 
however,  twenty  yards  is  the  nearest  a  boat  can 
get  before  the  walrus  are  aroused,  and  begin  to 
slip  into  the  water.    A  few  shots  quickly  decide 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      213 

whether  they  are  going  to  fight  or  beat  a  retreat, 
necessitating  a  long  chase  possibly,  and  adding  to 
the  difficulty  of  harpooning  them. 

The  harpoon  equipment  of  the  Eskimo  is  made 
up  of  a  tough  line  of  the  hide  of  the  square-flipper- 
seal,  one  hundred  feet  long,  attached  to  an  iron- 
edged  ivory  head  fitting  on  the  end  of  a  heavy 
harpoon-shaft  of  wood.    The  other  end  of  the  line 
is  attached  to  an  entire  sealskin  inflated,  and  some 
distance  from  the  end  is  fastened  a  rectangular 
drag,  attached,  like  a  kite,  by  a  bridle-line.    The 
float,  remaining  on  the  surface,  marks  the  position 
of  the  animal  and  prevents  its  going  deeper  than 
the  length  of  the  line.     Only  the  largest  and  most 
powerful  bull  walrus  can  drag  it  under,  and  that 
only  for  a  few  minutes.     The  float  also  keeps  the 
animal  from  going  to  the  bottom  and  being  lost 
after  being  killed.     The  drag  retards  the  move- 
ments of  the  animal  and  tires  him  out. 

The  Eskimo  in  charge  of  the  harpoon  has  his 
line  coiled  beside  him  in  the  bow,  with  the  har- 
poon-shaft laid  across  the  gunwales.  A  few  coils 
of  the  line  are  separated  from  the  rest  and  placed 
a  little  to  one  side,  where  they  can  be  easily  and 
quickly  grasped  and  held  in  his  left  hand  as  the 
harpoon  is  launched,  thus  allowing  the  line  to  play 
out  easily.  As  soon  as  a  walrus  is  harpooned, 
line,  float,  and  drag  are  thrown  overboard.  Care 
should  be  taken  to  give  the  flying  line  a  clear 
berth,  for  to  be  caught  by  a  turn  of  it  would  mean 


2U  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

at  least  a  wetting  and  possibly  more  serious  re- 
sults. 

In  an  attack  by  fifty  or  more  of  these  infuriated 
beasts  a  small  whale-boat  is  no  place  for  a  ner- 
vous person,  and  I  have  known  Eskimos,  accus- 
tomed for  years  to  such  encounters,  when  sur- 
rounded by  these  huge,  ivory-tusked  creatures, 
with  angry,  bloodshot  eyes,  emitting  vicious  roars 
through  thick,  stiff-bearded  lips,  and  making  sav- 
age attempts  to  get  at  the  occupants  of  the  boat, 
to  lose  their  heads  so  completely  as  to  drop  their 
harpoons,  begin  to  yell,  and  even  to  spit  at  their 
formidable  foes.  At  such  a  time  every  one  seizes 
an  oar,  boat-hook,  or  anything  solid,  and,  as  the 
brutes  attack,  hits  them  over  the  head  to  keep 
them  at  a  respectable  distance  from  the  boat  while 
the  men  at  the  rifles  do  their  work.  In  several 
encounters  I  have  had  a  harpooned  walrus  draw 
the  line  taut  and,  before  he  could  be  finished  with 
a  bullet,  race  off,  with  us  in  tow,  crashing  into  any 
ice  which  might  be  in  our  course,  knocking  the 
startled  Eskimos  from  the  thwarts,  with  the  rest 
of  the  herd  following,  snorting  and  charging  on  all 
sides.  A  walrus  can  with  the  utmost  ease  plunge 
his  tusks  through  several  inches  of  new  ice,  and 
it  is  no  uncommon  occurrence  for  one  to  dive  and 
come  up  under  the  boat,  ripping  a  hole  in  it,  and 
necessitating  a  hasty  retreat  to  firm  ice. 

The  modus  operandi  of  my  big,  systematic  wal- 


#*  • 


BRINGING    NARWHAL    ASHORE 


■?"'"  i  » 


\\  AI.KI   B    III    N  I  ERS     A.ND    T1IKIK    KILL 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      217 

rus  hunts  to  secure  the  maximum  amount  of  meat 
in  the  least  time  was  as  follows : 

As  many  harpoon  outfits  as  possible,  fifty  some- 
times, complete  with  floats  and  drags,  were  as- 
sembled on  my  ship,  with  the  best  harpooners  of 
the  tribe.  Then  two,  three,  or  four  of  my  whale- 
boats  were  kept  at  work,  each  supplied  with  six  or 
eight  outfits.  The  galley  was  kept  in  commission 
continuously  supplying  hot  coffee,  baked  beans, 
and  pilot-bread,  and  one  of  the  officers  remained 
in  the  crow's-nest  (a  barrel  at  the  mast-head) 
with  a  telescope,  locating  the  cakes  of  ice  that 
had  walrus  on  them.  Sometimes  when  the  walrus 
were  numerous  all  the  boats  would  get  away  at  the 
same  time  in  different  directions.  Sometimes  one 
would  start  out,  and  then  the  ship  would  steam  on 
and  drop  another  and  then  another.  Each  boat 
kept  at  the  walrus  until  it  had  all  its  harpoons  and 
lines  fast  to  the  animals,  and  perhaps  two  or  three 
dead  with  rifle-bullets  on  the  ice.  When  all  the 
lines  and  floats  were  out,  the  boat  would  pull  round 
to  each  float  where  an  animal  was  still  alive,  des- 
patch it  with  a  rifle,  then,  if  the  ship  was  near, 
go  aboard  for  lunch,  or,  if  far  off,  stand  an  oar 
on  end  whaler-fashion  and  wait  its  arrival.  The 
ship,  with  the  gangways  in  the  bulwarks  amid- 
ships taken  out  and  a  narrow  staging  rigged  down 
the  side  about  a  foot  above  the  water,  would  then 
steam  alongside  each  float  in  turn,  a  man  on  the 


218  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

stage  would  pass  the  float  up  to  the  deck,  and 
the  walrus  hanging  dead  in  the  water  down  the 
length  of  the  line,  would  be  pulled  to  the  surface, 
the  man  on  the  stage  with  a  sharp,  strong  knife 
would  cut  a  slit  in  the  tough  hide,  insert  the 
hook  of  a  heavy  tackle  and  fall,  the  man  at 
the  steam-winch  would  turn  on  steam,  and  in  a 
minute  or  two  the  huge  brute  would  be  dropped  in 
a  brown  mass  on  deck.  A  young  Eskimo  would 
jump  forward,  cut  out  the  harpoon,  and  take  line, 
float,  and  drag  aft,  coil  them  carefully  for  use 
again,  and  the  old  men  and  women  would  quickly 
skin  and  cut  up  the  animal.  By  the  time  all  of  one 
boat's  kill  had  been  brought  aboard  her  crew  had 
had  their  lunch,  and,  if  other  walrus  were  in  sight, 
went  away  again  after  them,  or,  if  none  was  in 
sight,  waited  till  the  masthead  man  sighted  more. 

In  this  way  forty  walrus  have  been  obtained 
in  a  night  or  a  day's  hunt,  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty  in  two  weeks'  work.  On  one  or  two  memor- 
able hunts  they  came  in  so  fast  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  skin  and  cut  them  up  till  the  hunt  was 
over  and  every  one  had  had  a  good  sleep.  At 
these  times  the  deck  was  hidden  under  the  huge, 
brown,  shapeless  forms,  and  the  ship  listed  heav- 
ily to  one  side  with  the  top-heavy  load. 

In  hunting  walrus  only  powerful  rifles  should 
be  used,  and  even  with  them  knowledge  of  how 
and  where  to  shoot  will  save  an  enormous  ex- 
penditure of  powder  and  lead.    It  is  utterly  use- 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      219 

less  to  shoot  walrus  in  the  body.  For  a  side  shot, 
a  spot  on  the  head  as  far  back  of  the  eye  as  the 
eye  is  back  of  the  nose  should  be  hit.  Here  the 
small  brain  has  less  protecting  skull  about  it.  The 
back  of  the  head  is  also  vulnerable.  A  frontal 
shot  is  almost  an  impossibility.  The  only  chance 
is,  when  the  walrus  opens  its  mouth,  to  put  a  bullet 
between  the  tusks  down  the  throat  and  smash  the 
vertebrae  at  the  base  of  the  skull.  This  shot  is  most 
likely  to  occur  with  a  number  of  bull  walrus  in 
the  water  close  about  the  boat.  On  several  oc- 
casions a  bull  walrus,  rising  with  a  rush  close  to 
the  boat  and  opening  his  mouth  to  bellow,  has 
been  surprised  by  a  shot  of  this  character,  and 
gone  like  a  rock  to  the  bottom.  On  one  oc- 
casion a  harpooned  animal,  while  fast  to  a  line 
and  float,  invariably  rose  to  the  surface  fac- 
ing the  boat,  and  had  the  entire  front  of  its 
head  back  to  the  eyes  literally  smashed  off, 
tusks  and  all,  by  eight  or  ten  shots  before  he  was 
killed.  It  is  an  utter  waste  of  powder  and  wal- 
rus meat  to  shoot  these  animals  in  the  water  un- 
less they  have  been  harpooned  and  are  fast  to  a 
line  and  float.  If  instantly  killed,  they  go  to  the 
bottom  like  rocks.  If  mortally  wounded,  they 
struggle  to  the  same  place.  On  a  few  occasions, 
in  shooting  a  walrus  in  the  back  of  the  head,  the 
blow  of  the  bullet  that  killed  it  instantly  forced 
its  head  under  water,  giving  the  air  in  the  lungs 
no  chance  to  escape,  and  the  animal  floated  with 


220  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

a  bit  of  the  back  exposed  till  a  float  could  be  fast- 
ened to  it.  But  these  cases  are  rare,  and  in  my 
later  expeditions  my  invariable  orders  were  never 
to  shoot  a  walrus  in  the  water  unless  it  already 
had  a  line  fast  to  it.  Even  when  shot  on  the  ice, 
unless  it  is  a  large  floe,  one  is  never  sure  of  an 
animal  until  it  is  aboard  or  has  a  float  fast  to 
it. 

The  inert  collapse  of  half  a  ton  or  more  of 
flesh  and  bone  under  the  impact  of  a  bullet  in  the 
brain  is  sufficient  to  tilt  a  small  ice-pan  and  slide 
the  dead  walrus  into  the  water.  The  slightest 
touch  of  the  ship  as  she  forges  alongside  the  cake 
to  hoist  the  animal  on  board  will  have  the  same 
result,  and  on  two  or  three  occasions  when  I  have 
lowered  a  boat  to  put  a  man  on  the  ice  and  make 
a  line  fast  to  the  animal,  the  man's  weight  has 
been  enough  to  disturb  the  balance  and  throw  the 
precious  meat  into  the  water. 

Now  that  the  United  States  has  given  up  all 
her  rights  in  Greenland  to  Denmark,  it  is  quite 
likely  that  an  embargo  on  walrus  hunting  in  the 
Whale  Sound  region  will  be  attempted  as  has  been 
the  case  for  years  in  southern  Greenland. 

In  such  event  polar  expeditions  by  the  Smith 
Sound  route  may  find  it  desirable  to  obtain  dog 
food  in  bulk  for  winter  use  at  headquarters  from 
the  whale  factories  of  the  Labrador  coast.  It  will 
not  be  as  satisfactory  as  the  walrus  meat,  but  it 
may  serve  the  purpose. 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      221 

Seen  a  few  feet  under  one's  boat  in  the  pale- 
green,  icy  water  of  Whale  Sound,  a  herd  of  rush- 
ing walrus,  as  swift  and  sinuous  as  seals,  the 
great  uncouth,  gray  shapes  rolling  from  side  to 
side  to  leer  upward  with  little,  bloodshot  eyes 
and  show  a  flash  of  white  tusks,  is  like  a  night- 
mare dream  of  the  inferno. 

Stuffed  and  baked,  the  heart  of  the  walrus  is  . 
as  great  a  delicacy  as  a  beef  heart.  Dr.  Semi,  a 
Chicago  traveler  and  writer,  a  summer  visitor  • 
on  one  of  my  auxiliary  ships,  was  greatly  capti- 
vated by  it,  and  Percy,  my  Newfoundland  steward 
of  numerous  expeditions,  incited  by  the  praise  of 
his  discovery,  became  a  blue-ribbon  chef  in  cook- 
ing it.  Some  explorers  have  highly  praised  the 
walrus  liver  and  urged  its  value  as  a  preventive 
and  cure  for  scurvy.  Never  having  been  obliged 
to  use  it  for  that  purpose,  and  spoiled  perhaps 
by  the  more  delicate  seal,  reindeer,  musk-ox,  and 
hare  livers,  the  members  of  my  expeditions  never 
seemed  to  care  for  it. 

The  thick,  tough  hide  of  the  walrus  furnishes  a 
dog  food  of  wonderful  staying  qualities.  A  small 
piece  of  it  when  frozen  will  keep  the  strongest- 
jawed  Eskimo  dog  occupied  and  interested  for 
hours  in  his  efforts  to  soften  it  to  the  point  where 
he  can  swallow  it  whole. 

I  have  always  taken  on  just  as  much  wTalrus 
meat  and  blubber  as  the  ship,  already  fille<i  almost 
to  her  capacity  with  coal,  etc.,  would  allow — some 


222  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

fifty  walrus,  perhaps.  This,  together  with  sev- 
enty or  more  tons  of  whale  meat  bought  at  Labra- 
dor, has  carried  the  dogs  through  the  winter,  and 
has  also  helped  feed  the  Eskimos,  who  virtually 
live  on  narwhal,  seal,  and  walrus.  The  narwhal 
and  seal  also  make  valuable  dog  food,  the  former 
being  found  in  the  Whale  Sound  region;  but  on 
my  last  expedition  north  there  was  virtually  no 
narwhal  hunting. 

Seals  are  obtained  in  abundance  at  Cape  Chalon, 
the  spring  hunting-ground  of  the  Eskimos,  and 
at  the  end  of  some  seasons  large  piles  of  this  meat 
are  stacked  along  the  ice-foot  at  the  village. 
Equipped  with  a  seal  spear,  and  dressed  in  the 
warmest  of  furs,  with  feet  padded  with  bearskin 
to  muffle  their  tread,  and  with  small  three-legged 
stools,  men,  boys,  and  even  women  may  be  seen 
sitting  for  hours  beside  a  hole  in  the  ice  waiting 
for  a  seal  to  appear  for  a  breath  of  air.  Occa- 
sional seals  were  always  captured  on  our  way  to 
and  from  winter  quarters,  and  they  frequently  ap- 
peared near  the  ship  during  the  winter. 

For  the  fresh-meat  supply  of  my  men  I  have 
always  depended  on  the  musk-ox,  and  on  all  my 
expeditions  have  been  able  to  find  numbers  of 
these  animals  within  a  radius  of  a  hundred  miles 
of  the  ship  or  other  winter  quarters.  They  can 
be  found  at  any  time  of  the  year,  even  during  the 
long  polar  night,  by  those  who  know  how.  The 
grass   and  creeping-willows   furnish   subsistence 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      223 

for  them  the  year  round,  the  strong  winds  pecul- 
iar to  those  regions  sweeping  large  tracts  of  land 
bare  of  snow  in  winter,  thus  enabling  them  to  eke 
out  an  existence. 

I  killed  my  first  musk-ox  in  1892  on  the  north- 
east coast  of  Greenland  near  Independence  Bay, 
and  three  years  later  discovered  tracks  of  fifteen 
or  twenty  in  the  same  region,  and  secured  six  of 
them.  During  my  expedition  of  1898-1902  nu- 
merous musk-oxen  were  killed  about  Fort  Conger, 
seventy-odd  in  its  immediate  neighborhood ;  forty 
in  the  region  from  Discovery  Harbor  westward 
by  way  of  Black  Rock  Vale,  and  the  southern  side 
of  Lake  Hazen,  seventeen  about  St.  Patrick's  Bay, 
three  beyond  Black  Cape,  near  the  winter  quar- 
ters of  the  Alert;  sixteen  in  Musk  Ox  Valley; 
twelve  at  the  Bellows  and  Black  Rock  Vale;  sev- 
enteen on  Bache  Peninsula;  twenty  at  the  north- 
ern arm  of  Buchanan  Bay,  and  one  at  its  southern 
arm;  seven  on  the  ice-cap  of  Ellesmere  Land; 
and  in  the  autumn  of  1900  one  hundred  and  one 
were  killed  in  various  localities  from  Discovery 
Harbor  to  Very  River,  ninety-two  of  them  being 
secured  in  less  than  three  weeks.  In  the  region 
about  Cape  Morris  K.  Jesup  two  herds  numbering 
fifteen  and  eighteen  animals  were  discovered,  and 
two  or  three  stray  ones,  but  only  four  of  these 
were  needed  for  my  party. 

My  1905-06  expedition  secured  its  supply  of 
musk-ox  meat  chiefly  from  the  drainage  basin  of 


224  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

Lake  Ilazen.  The  northern  side  of  the  lake  had 
not  been  drawn  upon  for  years,  and  hunting  par- 
ties in  this  region,  covering  the  southern  slopes 
of  the  United  States  Range,  met  with  great  suc- 
cess. Eskimo  hunting  parties  also  covered  the 
country  from  Lake  Hazen  and  Wrangel  Bay  north- 
ward to  Clements  Markham  Inlet  with  almost  as 
satisfactory  results.  A  few  animals  were  killed 
on  the  way  north  on  Bache  Peninsula,  and  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  discovery  of  a  few  of  these 
animals  on  my  return  from  87°  6'  my  party  would 
never  have  reached  the  ship.  Luckily  seven  musk- 
oxen  were  found  in  Nares  Land,  and  later  on  my 
western  trip  we  secured  seven  more  near  Cape 
Columbia. 

The  presence  of  musk-oxen  can  be  detected  very 
quickly  by  the  patches  of  luxuriant  grass  which 
mark  all  their  rendezvous,  although  along  the  in- 
habited parts  of  the  Greenland  coast  an  unusual 
growth  of  grass  may  be  a  sign  of  a  former  igloo. 
A  careful  examination  of  these  places  will  soon 
show  whether  musk-oxen  have  been  about,  bits  of 
wool  and  hair  shed  from  their  shaggy  coats  being 
scattered  here  and  there  on  the  ground,  while 
their  tracks  show  how  recent  has  been  their  visit. 
Fresh  tracks  of  musk-oxen  being  discovered,  it 
does  not  often  mean  a  great  distance  to  travel 
before  the  animals  themselves  are  sighted;  and 
musk-oxen  once  seen  may  be  considered  dead 
musk-oxen  by  an  experienced  hunter  with  a  good 


I  ■ 


* 


« 


A     MAGNIFICEN1      Mill      MUSK-OX 


REIND1  l  i:   "I     B3      \.    i   \  i  . 

Buck,    doe,    and    young    of    new    specie?    of    white    reindeer    named    bj 

Dr.  .(.  A.  Allen   "Rangifer   Pearyl!" 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      ffl 

dog  or  two.  On  approaching  to  within  a  mile  or 
so  of  them,  the  dogs  are  let  loose,  and  the  hunter 
can  follow  at  a  comfortahle  pace,  knowing  that  on 
his  arrival  the  herd  will  be  rounded  up.  A 
musk-ox,  if  alone,  will  retreat  to  the  nearest  cliff 
and  back  up  against  it  at  the  appearance  of  dogs. 
A  herd,  however,  will  round  up  anywhere,  with 
their  tails  together,  facing  the  intruders,  while 
their  leader  takes  his  stand  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  group  and  charges  the  dogs  as  they  come  up. 
As  soon  as  the  leader  is  shot,  another  steps  out 
from  the  herd  to  take  his  place,  and  so  on.  When 
things  begin  to  look  too  bad  for  them,  they  will 
sometimes  make  a  wild  break  to  escape,  or  the 
whole  herd  may  charge  the  enemy. 

With  the  musk-ox,  as  with  the  walrus,  knowing 
how  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world  in  the 
amount  of  ammunition  expended  and  the  amount 
of  meat  secured.  With  the  exception  of  a  few 
months  in  summer  a  strong  rifle  is  required,  as 
the  pelt  of  the  musk-ox  is  very  thick  and  heavy. 
With  a  suitable  rifle  and  some  experience  one 
shot  to  an  animal  should  be  sufficient. 

In  my  1900  sledge  trip  round  the  northern  ter- 
minus of  Greenland  I  obtained  ten  musk-oxen  and 
a  polar  bear  with  twelve  cartridges.  Two  of 
these  were  expended  on  the  bear.  In  a  very  suc- 
cessful late  September  afternoon  hunt  on  the 
north  side  of  Lake  Hazen  I  secured  twenty-five 
musk-oxen  with  twenty-six  cartridges,  two  being 


228  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

expended  on  the  bull  leader,  which  my  first  hur- 
ried shot  had  stopped,  but  not  killed,  in  a  charge 
on  my  dogs.  At  another  time,  the  others  of  my 
party  being  away,  I  took  a  solitary  scout  from 
camp  with  only  an  army  Colt  45.  With  the  six 
shots  in  this  I  got  five  bull  musk-oxen. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  narrative  of  the 
Polaris  expedition,  it  is  stated  that  some  of  the 
crew  expended  three  hundred  shots  on  one  ani- 
mal, and  then,  while  they  went  after  more  ammu- 
nition, it  left. 

With  the  musk-ox,  as  with  the  walrus,  in  my 
later  expeditions  I  hunted  them  on  a  large  scale 
and  in  a  systematic  way,  with  careful  attention 
to  details  to  secure  the  largest  amount  of  meat 
and  not  waste  an  ounce.  All  hunting  parties  had 
detailed  orders. 

Musk-oxen  were  to  be  shot  back  of  the  fore 
shoulder  or  in  the  neck,  at  the  base  of  the  skull. 
These  are  the  instantly  fatal  spots.  Frontal  or 
head  shots  are  a  waste  of  ammunition.  Skins 
were  removed  with  feet  and  legs  attached,  rolled 
up  in  bundles  to  fit  the  sledges,  and  taken  back  to 
the  ship  to  be  thawed  out  and  carefully  prepared 
by  the  Eskimo  women  at  their  leisure  during  the 
winter.  Hearts,  livers,  and  kidneys  were  re- 
moved, laid  out  to  freeze  solid,  then  stored  under 
rocks  away  from  dogs,  wolves,  and  foxes  until 
sledged  back  to  the  ship.  The  remainder  of  the 
viscera  was  fed  to  the  dogs  on  the  spot.     The 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      229 

heavy  backbone,  pelvis,  and  leg  bones  were  cut 
out,  the  marrowbones  cracked,  and  their  contents 
eaten  at  the  hunting-camp.  The  others  were 
thrown  to  the  dogs  to  gnaw  clean.  The  great 
brick-red  hams,  fore  shoulders,  and  balls  of  meat 
from  the  neck  and  ribs,  all  frozen  like  granite, 
were  then  piled  in  a  big  stack,  to  be  sledged  to  the 
ship  from  time  to  time  during  the  winter.  In  this 
way  nothing  was  wasted;  the  bones  and  viscera 
were  utilized  on  the  spot,  and  only  the  clear 
solid  meat  had  to  be  hauled  over  the  arduous 
trails. 

There  is  constant  excitement  in  traversing 
musk-ox  country.  One  can  never  tell  when  the 
opening  up  of  a  valley  or  a  turn  around  a  cliff 
may  bring  one  or  a  herd  of  the  shaggy  animals 
into  view. 

On  two  occasions  the  discovery  of  musk-oxen 
saved  my  sledge-party  from  starvation,  and  the 
discovery  was  not  due  to  happy  chance  or  acci- 
dent, but  was  the  result  of  careful,  intelligent 
search  in  suitable  localities,  examining  every 
slope  and  valley  and  rock  within  range  of  field- 
glasses,  carried  for  that  special  purpose,  and  as 
much  a  part  of  the  hunting  equipment  as  the  rifle. 

When  I  stretch  myself  or  drop  my  hand  on  the 
thick,  black  felt  of  the  musk-ox  robes  in  my  study, 
the  touch  of  them  conjures  up  many  a  vivid  pic- 
ture, and  I  have  a  more  than  friendly  feeling  for 
those  strange,  black  denizens  of  the  highest  North. 


230  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

The  favorite  haunts  of  the  reindeer  are  the 
rolling,  grassy  slopes  about  the  landlocked  lakes 
of  the  North,  where  the  pasturage  is  abundant, 
and  they  are  sheltered  from  the  cold  sea-fogs  and 
the  sharp  winds  from  the  ice-cap.  These  animals, 
or  traces  of  them,  have  been  found  by  various  ex- 
plorers in  Rawlings  Bay,  the  region  about  Fort 
Conger  in  Grinnell  Land,  and  at  Alexandra 
Haven  in  Ellesmere  Land,  and  they  have  been  re- 
ported in  considerable  numbers  on  the  western 
side  of  this  land.  In  1901  one  of  my  men  found 
an  antler  as  far  south  as  Erik  Harbor. 

In  the  region  about  our  winter  quarters  in  Mc- 
Cormick  and  Bowdoin  Bays  in  1891-93  and 
1893-95  deer  were  most  plentiful.  During  the 
autumn  of  1891  one  was  killed  on  the  plateau  just 
back  of  Red  Cliff  House;  two  boat-trips  to  the 
head  of  McCormick  Bay  resulted  in  fourteen  being 
obtained,  and  soon  after  ten  were  found  on  the 
northeast  side  of  the  bay  in  Five  Glacier  Valley. 
The  following  spring  eleven  were  added  to  our 
larder,  two  from  Five  Glacier  Valley,  one  from 
Cape  Cleveland,  the  rest  from  Bowdoin  Bay.  In 
1893  I  visited  the  southern  slopes  of  the  northern 
side  of  Olriks  Bay,  a  favorite  resort  of  the  deer. 
Five  hours'  work  added  seventeen  deer  to  our 
meat  supply,  and  thirty-three  were  killed  later  in 
the  same  place;  seven  were  seen  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Cape  Athol,  but  only  one  was  bagged. 
In  January,  1894,  hunting  parties  sent  out  to  the 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      231 

deer  pastures  of  Kangerdlooksoah  were  very  suc- 
cessful, bringing  back  fifty-four  animals. 

In  1905-06  we  got  eleven  deer  on  the  northern 
coast  of  Grant  Land;  a  party  sent  out  to  Porter 
Bay  returned  with  the  meat  and  skins  of  seven; 
and  seven  more  were  obtained  from  a  herd  of 
eleven  discovered  on  Fielden  Peninsula.  These 
reindeer  were  the  first  of  their  kind  ever  found, 
magnificent  animals,  almost  pure  white  in  color, 
designated  by  naturalists  as  a  new  species.  Later 
these  were  found  to  be  numerous  in  the  region 
between  Lake  Hazen  and  Cape  Hecla  and  along 
the  coast  of  northern  Grant  Land  to  the  westward, 
fifty-odd  being  killed. 

On  my  last  expedition  a  Porter  Bay  party 
brought  in  fourteen  of  the  animals;  three  were 
picked  up  not  far  from  the  ship,  and  a  stray  one  in 
James  Ross  Bay. 

A  deer  means  a  week's  rations  added  to  the 
meat  supply  of  the  party,  and  the  realization  of 
this  when  bringing  one  down  is  far  from  being  an 
unpleasant  sensation. 

Of  course  deer  hunting  is  much  the  same  the 
world  over,  but  the  Eskimos  have  a  magic  call  to 
these  animals  which  has  been  taught  to  the  young 
hunters  of  every  rising  generation.  It  is  similar 
to  the  hissing  of  a  cat,  only  more  prolonged,  and 
will  cause  a  fleeing  buck  reindeer  to  stop  instantly 
in  his  tracks,  giving  the  desired  shot. 

To  most  polar  travelers  and  explorers,  and  to 


232  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

all  readers,  the  polar  bear,  sometimes  called  the 
''Tiger  of  the  North,"  has  loomed  largest  as  the 
''big  game"  par  excellence  of  the  North.  I  know 
of  nothing  that  will  excite  an  Eskimo  so  much  as 
the  sight  of  one  of  these  huge  creatures  in  the  dis- 
tance ;  but  a  contest  with  even  three  or  four  bears 
and  a  man  armed  with  a  "Winchester  is  always  one- 
sided and  tame  sport  in  comparison  with  a  lively 
walrus  hunt. 

None  of  my  expeditions  has  had  the  exciting  bear 
adventures  of  others.  Bears  never  have  attacked 
us,  or  come  poking  into  our  tents  while  we  were 
asleep.  No  member  of  my  party  ever  had  a  hair- 
breadth encounter  with  one.  "We  hunted  them  as- 
siduously, partly  for  the  meat,  but  more  for  skins 
to  supply  us  with  trousers  for  the  long  sledge  jour- 
neys, and  we  were  able  to  secure  only  enough  for 
this  purpose. 

My  visualization  of  a  bear  hunt  is  the  constant 
watching  of  the  ice-floes  about  the  sledge  with  eyes 
and  field-glasses,  the  glimpsing  of  a  cream-col- 
ored spot  slipping  behind  an  ice  pinnacle,  or  of 
great  tracks  in  the  snow.  If  the  bear  has  heard 
the  dogs,  the  tracks  are  a  series  of  huge  leaps 
headed  directly  away  from  us;  the  loosening  of 
two  or  three  of  the  trained  dogs,  the  rapid  over- 
hauling of  the  bear,  a  single  shot,  or  at  the  most 
two,  and  then  strenuous  efforts  to  keep  the  crazy 
dogs  away  from  the  carcass  while  it  is  skinned,  cut 
up,  and  loaded  on  the  sledge. 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      *S0 

Though  classed  among  the  pure  carnivora,  the 

Eskimos  say  that  the  polar  bear  of  that  region 
when  unable  to  secure  seals  will  take  a  "hie" 
across  country,  and  fill  up  on  grass  like  a  rein- 
deer. 

I  believe  this  to  be  time.  An  enormous  male 
bear  which  I  killed  on  the  Fourth  of  July  in  Flag- 
ler Bay  was  big  bellied  as  a  cow,  and  (lie  stomach 
was  distended  with  grass. 

In  1886,  at  Ravenscraig  Harbor,  on  the  south 
side  of  Eglinton  Fiord,  a  fleet  of  four  whalers  and 
the  Eagle  obtained  ten  bears,  two  of  these  being 
harpooned  in  the  water  by  the  crew  of  the  Eagle. 
So  enraged  was  one  of  the  animals  that  the  crews 
of  three  boats  were  required  to  keep  the  bear  from 
climbing  into  the  Eagle's  boat  to  wreak  vengeance 
on  the  occupants.  Just  north  of  Cape  Hooper  we 
got  three  more  bears  in  the  ice-pack.  It  is  not  al- 
ways possible  to  bring  a  bear  down  with  the  first 
shot  when  he  is  traveling  over  rough  ice,  but  there 
need  be  no  doubt  as  to  whether  a  shot  has  reached 
its  mark  or  not,  for  a  wounded  bear  will  always 
make  savage  snaps  at  the  spot  stung  by  a  bullet. 

In  July,  1891,  we  obtained  one  bear  in  the  Mel- 
ville Bay  ice-pack,  and  pursued  an  old  bear  with 
her  two  cubs  for  some  distance,  but  they  made 
good  their  escape.  The  next  spring  one  of  my 
Eskimo  hunters  came  upon  a  young  bear  aear 
Cape  Parry,  and  in  the  spring  of  1804  five  were 
brought  in  from  Kane  Basin. 


234  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

During  my  1905-06  expedition  one  bear  was 
killed  near  Cape  Sabine,  another  in  crossing  Kane 
Basin,  and  two  on  the  northern  shore  of  Bache 
Peninsula.  Only  one  was  obtained  during  my  last 
trip,  and  that  in  James  Ross  Bay;  but  on  our  way 
from  Cape  Columbia  to  the  pole  we  discovered 
fresh  polar  bear  tracks  over  two  hundred  miles 
from  land,  and  on  our  return  came  across  tracks 
of  what  we  believed  to  be  the  same  bear. 

Actual  measurements  of  the  broad  plantigrade 
footprints  of  a  bear  on  one  of  my  earlier  expedi- 
tions gave  a  width  of  eleven  inches,  with  a  length 
of  twenty-two  inches;  but  the  dragging  toes  and 
hair  of  the  animal's  heels  in  the  soft  snow  made  a 
much  larger  trail,  closely  resembling  that  of  a  man 
on  snow-shoes. 

Chief  among  the  smaller  animals  of  the  North 
are  the  polar  hares,  which  are  found  occasionally 
on  southern  slopes,  even  as  far  north  as  the  north- 
ern shores  of  Grant  Land.  Like  the  penguins  of 
the  antarctic  regions,  they  have  not  yet  learned  to 
fear  man,  and  it  is  possible  to  get  almost  close 
enough  to  pick  them  up.  On  my  last  expedition 
members  of  the  party  discovered  hundreds  of 
these  little  animals  around  Lake  Hazen,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  near  enough  to  hit  them  over  the 
head  with  their  rifles  instead  of  shooting.  A 
stray  hare  or  two  picked  up  on  sledge-trips  make 
a  very  acceptable  change  in  the  monotonous  diet 
of  pemmican. 


SEC1   RING    BIRDS    AT    THE    BIRD    CLIFFS 


II  \KK    HUNTING    AT    83       \.    I, AT. 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      *37 

While  it  can  scarcely  be  said  that  the  Bea-birda 

of  the  North  are  hunted,  still  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  little  auks  and  guillemots  are  caught 
every  year  by  the  Eskimos  with  their  nets,  and 
laid  by  for  the  long  winter.  At  Red  Cliff  House, 
in  1891-93,  millions  of  these  birds  were  to  be  seen 
in  the  summer  months,  and  boat-trips  were  made 
to  the  loomeries  of  Hakluyt,  Northumberland,  and 
Herbert  Islands  for  a  supply  of  them.  In  the 
clefts  of  the  perpendicular  cliffs  of  these  islands 
the  Brunnich's  guillemots  breed  by  the  thousand-. 
Our  method  of  capturing  them  was  to  run  the  boat 
up  to  the  cliffs  after  as  many  as  could  be  kept 
track  of  had  been  shot,  and  while  one  man  col- 
lected the  dead  birds,  another  kept  the  boat  off  the 
rocks  with  his  boat-hook.  Not  over  thirty  per 
cent,  of  the  birds  killed  would  fall  into  the  water, 
the  majority  of  them  catching  on  the  cliffs,  where 
it  was  impossible  to  get  at  them.  Millions  of 
guillemots,  kittiwakes,  and  little  auks,  as  well  as 
numerous  looms,  burgomasters,  and  falcons,  are 
to  be  found  along  the  cliffs  between  Cape  York 
and  Conical  Rock.  With  vast  throngs  of  these 
birds  perched  on  every  projecting  rock  or  lodge, 
these  cliffs  appear  to  be  fairly  alive.  Eider  ducks 
are  on  Duck  Islands  of  Melville  Bay  and  McGary 
Island  in  considerable  quantities.  Two  stray  ones 
were  killed  near  Cape  Belknap  in  1907. 

Brant  also  are  found  on  the  northern  coasl  of 
Grant   Land;    after  my   return   from   "farthest 


238  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

north"  in  1906  we  came  across  groups  of  ten  or 
eleven,  and  near  Cape  Thomas  Hubbard  I  discov- 
ered a  flock  of  as  many  as  one  hundred  of  these 
birds. 

The  only  available  fish  in  the  north  are  found  in 
the  landlocked  lakes  of  that  region.  They  will  not 
touch  bait,  and  the  Eskimo  method  of  catching 
them  with  a  spear  had  to  be  adopted  by  us.  The 
native  spears  are  made  by  setting  a  nail  or  any 
sharp  bit  of  steel  in  the  end  of  a  shaft.  Two  pieces 
of  deer  antler  are  bound  with  fine  cord  to  each  side 
of  the  shaft  so  that  they  point  downward,  and 
sharp  nails  are  then  set  in  these,  pointing  inward. 
A  hole  is  cut  in  the  ice,  and  a  small  fish  carved  from 
ivory,  in  which  art  the  Eskimos  are  surprisingly 
expert,  is  dropped  into  the  water.  A  fish,  rising 
to  examine  the  decoy,  is  immediately  thrust  with 
the  spear,  which,  pressing  down  on  its  back,  causes 
the  portions  of  antler  to  spread,  and  the  nails  to 
sink  into  its  flesh  and  makes  escape  almost  impos- 
sible. 

My  confidence  in  the  ability  of  the  country  to 
furnish  the  fresh-meat  supply  of  my  expeditions 
has  always  been  justified  by  results.  Even  in 
1905-06,  when,  with  the  long  polar  night  upon  us, 
I  had  to  face  the  serious  proposition  of  feeding 
my  dogs  and  most  of  my  Eskimos  entirely  upon 
the  country  because  the  whale  meat  purchased  in 
Labrador  proved  to  be  bad  and  had  to  be  thrown 
away,  I  found  it  possible  to  subsist  them  upon  the 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY      289 

country's  resources.  It  is  quite  true,  I  hough,  that 
such  a  thing  would  have  been  absolutely  impos 
sible  had  it  not  been  for  my  thorough  knowledge 
of  this  region.  Nor  should  I  have  found  an  abun- 
dance of  game  along  the  most  northerly  lands, — 
the  northern  coasts  of  Greenland  and  Grant  Land, 
— where  Nares  and  Greely's  parties  found  prac- 
tically none,  and  were  reduced  to  most  serious 
straits,  had  it  not  been  for  my  previous  years  of 
training  and  experience  in  how  and  where  to  look 
for  polar  game. 


7 


CHAPTER  IX 

SLEDGE   EQUIPMENT 

THOROUGH  preparedness  for  a  polar  sledge 
journey  is  of  vital  importance,  and  no  time 
devoted  to  the  study  and  perfection  of  the  equip- 
ment for  a  long  journey  can  be  considered  wasted. 
Upon  the  perfection  of  this  equipment  depends  the 
success  of  the  expedition.  It  must  be  devised  to 
meet  every  condition  and  every  extreme,  and  my 
sledge-journeys  have  always  been  preceded  by 
days  and  weeks,  even  months,  of  careful  attention 
to  the  slightest  details.  To  the  inexperienced  the 
amount  of  work  this  involves  even  for  a  small 
party  would  be  surprising. 

The  major  items  of  my  sledging-equipment,  as 
used  in  the  north  pole  trip,  are  as  follows : 

Eskimos  for  majority  of  party. 

Eskimo  dogs  for  traction. 

Special  sledges. 

Fur  clothing  exclusively. 

Pemmican  for  mainstay  of  rations. 

Special  device  for  making  tea. 

Snow  houses  for  shelter. 

The  more  nearly  perfect  and  simple  the  outfit 
and  its  adaptability  to  the  various  conditions  to  be 

240 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  24] 

encountered  in  overland  or  polar-sea  sledging,  tin- 
more  the  work  which  can  be  accomplished,  and  the 
greater  the  comfort  and  safety  of  the  party. 

Every  reduction  that  can  be  made  in  the  num- 
ber of  articles  of  food  or  equipment  necessary, 
and  in  the  number  of  routine  operations  or  mo- 
tions that  have  to  be  gone  through  with  daily,  as 
making  and  breaking  camp,  preparing  meals,  etc., 
conserves  time,  temper,  and  mental  as  well  as 
physical  energy,  leaving  more  minutes  for  sleep 
and  more  vim  for  traveling. 

Every  precaution  should  be  taken  to  render 
every  article  of  equipment  as  impervious  to  the 
dangers  of  injury  or  breakage  as  possible.  This 
not  only  saves  the  extra  burden  of  a  repair  outfit, 
but  valuable  time  in  the  field.  Provisions  must 
be  rendered  immune  from  loss  or  injury  by  wet- 
ting. 

Next  in  importance  comes  weight.  Everything 
should  be  just  as  light  as  it  can  possibly  be  made, 
for  the  number  of  miles  a  party  can  travel  de- 
pends on  the  amount  of  food  it  can  carry,  and 
every  pound  deducted  from  the  weight  of  equip- 
ment means  an  extra  pound  added  to  the  food- 
supply. 

The  fundamental  conditions  of  the  supreme 
polar  sledge-journeys  should  be  fully  compre- 
hended. On  leaving  land  to  force  a  way  across 
the  surface  of  the  north  polar  ocean,  or  leaving 
headquarters  to  drive  to  the  center  of  the  antarc- 


242  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

tic  continent,  not  an  ounce  of  food  or  supplies  or 
equipment  can  be  obtained  on  the  way.  Every- 
thing to  use  or  eat  on  the  journey  must  be  carried 
on  the  sledges.  The  load  that  can  be  carried  upon 
the  sledges  is  a  certain  fixed  amount,  depending 
upon  the  character  and  amount  of  the  tractive 
power.  In  my  work  it  was  fixed  at  live  hundred 
pounds  for  a  team  of  eight  dogs. 

That  load  is  made  up  of  two  parts,  the  "  con- 
stant" weights  of  cooking-outfit,  rifle,  instru- 
ments, etc.,  and  the  "variables"  comprising  sup- 
plies which  are  constantly  decreasing  as  consumed 
by  men  and  dogs.  For  every  pound  of  "con- 
stant" weight  that  can  be  saved  by  elimination  or 
refinement  a  pound  of  pemmican  can  be  substi- 
tuted, and  this  is  a  day's,  or,  in  an  emergency,  two 
clays',  ration  for  a  man  or  a  dog.  A  saving  of 
nine  pounds  in  the  "constants"  represents  a  full 
day 's  rations  for  a  driver  and  his  eight  dogs,  and 
this  transformed  into  distance  may  mean  any- 
where from  ten  to  forty  miles. 

For  tractive  power  I  have  always  used  the 
Eskimo  dogs,  and  believe  they  are  the  only  thing 
for  such  work.  Eight  dogs  are  required  to  haul 
the  standard  load,  but,  with  an  extra  load  or  for 
fast  traveling,  I  have  sometimes  used  ten  or 
twelve  good  dogs. 

A  good  team  of  eight  dogs  should  always  have 
one  or  two  bitches  in  it.  This  makes  a  livelier  and 
better-working  team,  and  the  bitches  of  the  Whale 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  2  1 3 

Sound  clogs  almost  without  exception  pull  harder 
per  pound  of  their  weight  than  the  dogs.  If, 
when  bitches  go  in  heat,  they  are  put  in  the  lead- 
ing team,  there  is  no  occasion  to  use  the  whip  with 
the  other  teams. 

From  every  point  of  view  and  under  every  con- 
sideration the  Eskimo  dog  is  at  the  present  time 
the  only  motor  for  polar  work.  lie  is  capable  of 
wider  adjustment  to  varying  and  always  adverse 
conditions  than  any  other;  he  can  go  where  no 
other  can;  he  can  stand  more  cold  and  hardship 
than  others;  he  uses  the  same  fuel  (pemmican) 
as  the  men;  he  requires  no  water,  no  special  care 
or  attention  or  shelter;  and  when  he  is  no  longer 
of  use  as  a  motor,  he  can  be  utilized  as  fuel  for 
the  other  motors  or  the  men  of  the  party. 

The  first  item  of  equipment  to  be  considered  is 
the  sledge.  Upon  it  all  depends,  and  no  detail  of 
its  construction  is  too  small  to  be  of  the  utmost 
importance.  It  must  drag  easily  and  he  as  light 
in  weight  as  it  can  be  without  the  sacrifice  of 
strength  for  lightness. 

Twenty-three  years  of  experience  in  polar 
sledge-traveling  and  acquaintance  with  all  types  of 
sledges  have  given  me  clear  and  definite  ideas  as 
to  essentials  and  non-essentials  in  the  construc- 
tion of  sledges. 

Those  built  for  my  first  expedition  were  mod- 
eled on  the  same  general  principles  as  the  Mc- 
Clintock  sledge,  but  weighing  about  one-third  as 


244  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

much.  Each  succeeding  expedition  has  seen  some 
improvement  in  our  sledge  designing  and  building, 
and  the  Peary  sledge,  used  for  the  first  time  on  my 
last  expeditions,  is  in  my  opinion  the  best  type 
of  sledge  yet  built  for  polar-sea-ice  work.  Be- 
cause of  its  model,  this  style  of  sledge  proved 
much  stronger  and  much  more  easy  to  draw  than 
any  others  I  have  ever  used. 

They  are  two  feet  wide,  from  twelve  to  thirteen 
feet  long,  with  a  height  of  seven  inches.  The 
sides  are  made  of  solid  oak  or  hickory,  rounded  in 
back  as  well  as  in  front,  and  bent  ash  run- 
ners two  inches  wide  are  attached  to  the  sides. 
The  runners  are  equipped  with  shoes  two  inches 
wide  and  an  eighth  of  an  inch  thick  of  cold  sheared 
steel.  Sealskin  thongs  lash  the  sides  together, 
making  a  sledge  which  is  strong  enough  to  sup- 
port from  one  thousand  to  twelve  hundred  pounds 
on  level  surfaces. 

For  antarctic  or  polar  ice-cap  work  these 
sledges,  while  still  retaining  their  dimensions  and 
shape,  can  be  materially  reduced  in  weight  by 
using  framed  construction  for  the  sides  instead 
of  solid.  The  full  length  should  be  retained,  as 
this  is  a  great  advantage  and  factor  of  safety  in 
crossing  the  crevasses  of  the  ice-cap. 

The  framed,  or  McClintock,  type  of  sledge,  with 
its  various  modified  forms  as  used  by  Nansen, 
Abruzzi,  and  others,  is  entirely  unsuited  for  sea- 
ice  work  with  dogs.     For  ice-cap  work,  where  the 


■ 


W 


ESKIMO     TYPE     SL1  DGJ 


i\  |     hi      i  1 1  I     I'l    \XCi     SLEDGES 


:;; 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  847 

surface  is  nearly  level  and  composed  of  snow  and 
the  course  is  straight  away,  or  for  sea-ice  work 
dragged  by  men  who  will  handle  it  carefully,  the 
framed  type  of  sledge  has  the  advantage  of  light- 
ness. In  some  of  my  Greenland  ice-cap  work  I 
had  fifty-pound  sledges  that  would  carry  one 
thousand  pounds,  and  twelve-pound  ones  that 
would  carry  two  hundred  pounds. 

But  for  the  grueling  rough-and-tumble  work 
with  dogs  on  sea  ice,  over  the  pressure  ridges, 
through  rubble  zones,  and  among*  the  sharp-cor- 
nered ice-blocks,  flinty  with  minus  50°  or  60°F., 
only  the  solid-sided  sledge  will  stand  the  racket. 
With  it,  a  sharp  corner  of  ice,  coming  against  the 
side,  grates  and  slides  along  until  it  slips  off  at  the 
stern  without  damage,  while  with  the  framed 
sledge  the  same  sharp  corner  will  rip  out  three  or 
four  side  posts,  and  necessitate  a  long  and  trying 
job  of  repairs. 

Another  most  important  feature  of  a  sledge  for 
sea-ice  or  coast  work  is  a  shoe  that  will  bite  the 
ice  like  a  skate  iron  and  not  slip  sidewise. 

The  most  trying  thing  for  sledges,  dogs,  and 
men  is  the  side  sluing  of  a  sledge  in  rough  ice, 
gathering  momentum  as  it  goes,  only  to  bring  up 
with  a  side  crash  against  a  piece  of  steel-blue  ice. 
This  worries  and  discourages  the  dogs  by  jerking 
them  off  their  feet,  strains  the  driver  sometimes 
seriously  in  his  efforts  to  soften  the  crash,  and  in 
my  earlier  sledges  I  have  often  had  a  side  split 


] 


248  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

from  end  to  end  and  bent  flat  under  the  sledge. 
This  means  unloading  the  sledge,  work  at  it  for 
two  or  three  hours,  then  reloading,  all  in  tempera- 
tures far  below  zero.  Not  until  my  last  two  ex- 
peditions did  I  find  the  material — cold  sheared 
steel — which  met  my  requirements  for  sledge^ 
shoes. 

''Another  absolute  essential  in  every  sledge  is 
that  there  shall  be  no  rigid  joints.  Such  joints  go 
to  everlasting  smash  very  quickly  under  the  con- 
tinuous succession  of  blows,  with  the  entire  weight 
of  the  load  acting  as  a  hammer  at  every  impact 
with  the  flinty  ice.  Every  joint  must  be  lashed, — 
preferably  with  rawhide, — thus  giving  a  certain 
elasticity,  which  eases  the  blow.  Some  expedi- 
tions have  never  learned  this,  but  the  Eskimos 
have  worked  it  out  very  thoroughly,  and  I  availed 
myself  fully  of  their  wonderful  ingenuity  and 
adaptation  of  lashings  and  knots  for  the  different 
.  parts  of  a  sledge. 

There  are  numbers  of  little  details  in  the  con- 
struction of  an  ideal,  easy-running,  easy-steering 
sledge  jliat  are  as  important  as  the  proper  angle 
for  the  cutting  edge  of  a  tool  in  various  materials, 
but  which  it  would  be  tedious  if  not  impossible  to 
describe  here. 

This  native  art  of  sledge-building,  not  only  the 
common  knowledge  of  the  tribe,  but  the  individual 
knowledge  of  the  picked  Eskimos  of  my  expedi- 
tion, I  was  able  to  utilize  for  my  sledge-equip- 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  249 

ment  by  the  simple  expedient  of  having  every  man 
build  bis  own  sledge,  material  and  tools  of  course 
being  furnished  by  me.     The  desire  to  1  the 

other  fellow,  which  the  better  men  of  this  tribe 
possess,  and  the  wish  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  his 
own  personal  labor  and  discomfort  led  each  man 
to  put  forth  every  effort  to  make  his  sledge  the 
lightest,  strongest,  most  unbreakable,  and  the 
easiest  running  and  most  readily  steered. 

Thus  my  own  practical  experience  of  twenty 
years,  the  experience  of  generations  of  the  tribe, 
the  individual  ambition  and  pride  of  my  picket] 
men,  the  best  of  material  and  tools,  and  the  long 
hours  of  the  winter  night  in  which  to  work — all 
combined  to  give  me  what  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
considering  the  best  sledge-equipment  that  ever 
went  into  the  field. 

I  also  used  on  my  last  expedition  the  regular 
type  of  sledge  which  has  been  in  use  among  the 
Eskimos  since  the  early  days  when  they  had  to 
depend  on  the  bones  of  the  walrus  and  whale  and 
the  antlers  of  the  deer  for  material  for  building 
them.  This  type  of  sledge  has  two  oak  runners 
seven  inches  in  height  and  one  and  a  quarter  inch 
in  thickness.  These  are  steel  shod  but  are  curved 
only  at  the  front.  To  render  them  better  adapted 
to  the  special  work  before  us,  I  increased  th« 
length  of  these  Eskimo  sledges  from  six  or  Beven 
feet  to  nine  and  a  half  feet.  » 

Sledges  intended  for  inland  work  differ  slightly  \ 


250  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

from  those  to  be  used  in  sea-ice  work.  Deep,  soft 
snow  is  generally  prevalent  in  the  interior  regions, 
and  to  keep  a  sledge  from  sinking  into  it,  it  must 
be  equipped  with  broad,  flat  runners.  There  can 
also  be  a  decided  gain  in  lightness  in  the  sledges 
for  this  class  of  work,  although  the  strong  winds 
of  the  ice-cap  carve  portions  of  it  into  sharp,  al- 
most marble-like  sastrugi,  which  tests  the  power 
of  endurance  of  the  strongest  of  sledges.  None 
of  those  used  by  me  in  my  Greenland  inland-ice 
cap-work  weighed  over  fifty  pounds,  while  those 
used  on  my  trip  to  the  pole  averaged  ninety-five 
pounds. 

Next  after  the  ship,  Eskimos,  the  Eskimo  dogs, 
and  special  sledges,  a  vital  tool  for  the  polar  ex- 
plorer is  the  clothing  for  himself  and  the  members 
of  his  party  on  his  serious  sledge-journeys.  The 
meaning  of  suitable  clothing  on  a  serious  polar 
sledge-journey  goes  beyond  the  mere  personal 
comfort  of  the  wearer.  Fur  clothing  of  suitable 
material,  properly  made  and  intelligently  worn, 
means  conservation  of  the  vital  heat  and  energy 
of  the  wearer,  which  can  thus  all  be  devoted  to 
the  object  of  the  party,  covering  distance.  Un- 
suitable clothing,  as  represented  by  the  cumber- 
some, awkward,  heavy,  and  ludicrous  outfits  of 
various  expeditions,  including  some  of  my  earliest 
ones,  means  the  wastage  of  from  fifty  to  seventy- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  wearer's  wTarmth  and  energy 
in  the  struggle  to  keep  alive,  leaving  only  from 


POLAR   SLEDGE  COS!  UME 

Thp  fipure  on  tin-  !<■  i'i   lias  deerskin  l >« >«  is.  the  one  "ii  the  right  i te 

of  muskox  skin.  Both  have  the  sheepskin  coat  with  bearskin  roll 
about  the  face.  The  man  on  the  right,  boring  a  hole  through  the  Ice 
for  a  Bounding,  has  pushed  his  h l  back 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  £56 

fifty  to  twenty-five  per  cent,  to  be  devoted  to  the 
work.  A  parallel  illustration  is  that  of  two  sim- 
ilar engines  generating  the  same  power  but  one  of 
them  consuming  fifty  per  cent,  or  more  of  that 
power  in  overcoming  its  own  frictional  resistances, 
while  the  other  uses  only  five  per  cent,  for  this 
purpose. 

The  former  engine  will  have  but  fifty  per  cent, 
of  its  power  for  performing  its  work,  while  the 
other  will  have  essentially  all  its  power  for  its 
work,  and  will  be  able  to  accomplish  twice  as  mucli 
as  the  first. 

There  is  no  question  in  my  mind  that  if  Scott 
and  his  men  had  had  the  clothing  outfit  of  my  men 
and  had  "known  how  to  wear  it,  the  conservation  of 
heat  and  energy  effected  by  it,  would,  in  spite  of 
short  rations,  have  enabled  them  to  pull  through. 

The  members  of  my  later  sledge-parties  were 
normally  warm  and  comfortable  nearly  all  of  the 
time,  and  so  could  devote  all  their  energies  to 
travel. 

Nature's  own  insulation  against  cold — animal 
fur — and  the  wind-impervious  integument  of  ani- 
mal skin  are  the  only  materials  for  this  purpose. 
This  is  nature's  own  protection  to  her  warm- 
blooded animals  living  in  those  same  regions. 
Once  stated,  the  proposition  is  so  simple  as  to  be 
self-evident.  If  further  proof  were  needed,  there 
is  the  example  of  the  Eskimos,  whose  sole  cloth- 
ing is  fur  of  animals  and  feathers  of  birds. 


254,  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

Believing  their  dress  perfect  for  conditions 
under  which  they  use  it,  I  have  adopted  it  with 
slight  modifications  for  my  parties. 

As  so  modified^  the  clothing  outfit  for  every 
member  of  my  party,  including  the  Eskimos,  was 
as  follows: 

One  short-hooded  coat  of  selected  deerskin. 

One  short-hooded  working-coat  of  selected 
sheep-skin. 

One  blanket  or  flannel  shirt. 

One  pair  of  short,  flannel-lined  bearskin  trou- 
sers. 

One  pair  of  bearskin  or  deerskin  or  musk-ox 
skin  winter-weather  boots.  One  pair  of  sealskin 
boots. 

Two  or  three  pair  of  polar  hare-skin  stockings. 

One  pair  of  bearskin  mittens. 

One  or  two  pairs  of  deerskin  or  sealskin  mittens. 

Three  or  four  pairs  of  blanket  inner  mittens. 

Two  or  three  pairs  of  deerskin  inner  soles. 

All  the  material  for  these  outfits  was  carefully 
selected  and  prepared,  and  the  garments  were 
made  in  accordance  with  the  Eskimo  methods, 
carefully  fitted  for  each  man  and  tried  out  by 
actual  practice  in  hunting-trips  during  the  winter, 
so  that  all  defects  were  remedied  before  the  long 
spring  journey. 

Such  a  clothing  outfit  as  this  reduces  to  the 
minimum  the  chances  of  frost-bite  among  the 
members  of  the  party.    A  man  who  is  normally 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  S55 

warm  and  whose  blood  circulates  vigorously  can 
have  his  hand  exposed  to  low  temperatures  for  a 
short  time,  as  in  unlashing  a  load  or  untangling 
the  dogs,  or  his  feet  wet  for  a  short  time  as  the  re 
suit  of  his  getting  into  a  lead,  without  having 
hands  or  feet  frozen;  whereas  a  man  dressed  in 
artificial  clothing,  chilly  all  the  time,  drawing  on 
his  vital  heat  and  energy  continuously,  would 
freeze  his  hands  or  feet  almost  instantly  under 
the  same  conditions. 

Such  a  costume  is  also  a  very  practical  auxiliary 
of  the  rations  in  certain  circumstances.  When  it 
is  necessary  to  go  on  scant  rations,  the  conserva- 
tion of  animal  heat  and  life  represented  by  one  of 
these  costumes  is  a  very  material  equivalent  of  a 
considerable  amount  of  food. 

With  an  outfit  of  this  kind  it  is  possible  for  a 
party  to  undertake  the  longest  of  sledge-journeys 
in  very  low  temperatures,  and  under  all  condi- 
tions, from  sleeping  in  the  open  to  the  hard  work 
of  lifting  and  hauling  the  sledges  over  difficult 
places,  with  comparatively  little  discomfort. 

For  polar  sea-ice  work  I  consider  this  costume 
absolutely  vital,  because  of  the  protection  which  it 
affords  in  case  of  falling  into  the  leads  or  crack- 
in  the  ice.  With  the  draw-string  at  the  bottom  of 
the  coat  fastened  tight,  with  the  tops  of  the  boots 
tied  tightly  over  the  flap  at  the  bottom  of  the 
trousers,  a  man,  falling  or  slipping  into  a  narrow 
lead,  may  be  immersed  in  the  water  or  slush  to  his 


256  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

shoulders  for  two  or  three  minutes  before  scram- 
bling out,  and  not  only  not  experience  any  ill  ef- 
fects, but  not  even  have  to  pay  any  attention  to  the 
mishap.  During  a  few  minutes'  immersion  no 
water  will  have  penetrated  his  fur  costume;  and 
if  he  is  immediately  scraped  down  with  a  whip- 
handle  or  back  of  a  knife  to  remove  most  of  the 
water  or  slush  from  the  outside  fur  of  his  clothing 
and  then,  as  he  walks  briskly  along,  from  time  to 
time  he  beats  his  clothing  with  whip-stock  or  knife- 
blade,  he  will  have  it  virtually  dry  and  clear  of 
frost  and  ice  at  the  end  of  three  or  four  hours. 

If  he  falls  into  a  lead  in  such  a  way  that  he 
cannot  extricate  himself,  the  bulk  and  contained 
air  of  his  fur  clothing  will  buoy  him  up  for  a  long 
time  before  the  water  finally  penetrates  it. 

A  sleeping-bag  has  always  been  considered  an 
absolutely  essential  item  of  equipment  for  any  and 
every  sledge-party,  but  I  have  not  used  one  since 
my  expedition  of  1891-92.  My  clothing  outfit  has 
served  as  sleeping-bag,  and  has  enabled  me  to  dis- 
pense entirely  with  that  heavy,  cumbersome,  tem- 
per-destroying feature  of  sledge-work,  and  has 
permitted  me  to  substitute  on  my  sledges,  in  place 
of  each  sleeping-bag,  ten  or  twelve  additional 
pounds  of  pemmican. 

For  any  serious  sledge-journey  in  polar  regions 
there  are  four  and  only  four  food  essentials,  what- 
ever the  time  of  year,  the  temperature,  or  the 


COMPASS    COURSE    INDICATOR 

Devised  by  Peary  for  keeping  course  on  the  great  interior  ice  cap 
in  thick  weather  and  clouds.  A  liquid  boat  compass  mounted  on  two 
ski   at   the   end   of  a  bamboo   pole   and    pushed    ahead    of   him   by   the 

leader  of  the  party. 


PE  \i:v    SLEDGE    I  S     ACTION 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  259 

length  of  the  trip.  These  are  pemmican,  tea, 
ship's  biscuit,  and  condensed  milk.  Long  experi- 
ence with  these  foods  as  staples  has  convinced  me 
that  nothing  else  is  necessary  either  to  provide  1 
heat  for  the  body  or  to  build  muscle.  As  a  matter  I 
of  fact,  all  could  be  omitted  except  the  pemmican. 
The  others,  while  desirable,  are  all  from  the  stern 
polar  point  of  view,  merely  luxuries.  J 

The  pemmican  for  my  last  expedition  was  al 
preparation  of  lean  beef,  dried  until  nearly  all  I 
water  was  expelled  from  it,  then  ground  fine  and 
mixed  with  beef  fat,  a  little  sugar,  and  a  few  rais-  j 
ins.    No  more  concentrated  or  more  satisfyingj 
meat  food  can  be  prepared,  and  it  forms  the  one 
absolutely  indispensable  item  of  any  polar  sledge- 
ration. 

My  hard-tack,  pilot-bread,  army-bread,  whatever  \ 
one  chooses  to  call  it,  was  made  specially  for  my 
expedition  as  regards  size  and  weight  of  the  in- 
dividual biscuit.  The  ingredients  of  the  bread 
were  essentially  the  same  as  those  of  regular  hard- 
tack, being  little  else  than  flour,  water  and  salt. 

For  convenience  in  issuing  rations,  these  biscuit 
were  made  sixteen  to  the  pound,  which  meant  that, 
when  we  were  on  full  rations,  sixteen  were  issued 
to  each  man  each  day ;  if  on  half-rations,  eight  bis- 
cuit ;  if  on  quarter-rations,  four  biscuit.  The  bis- 
cuit were  made  square  in  the  interests  of  reduced 
bulk,  and  they  were  packed  in  hermetically  sealed, 


260  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

(rectangular  tins  containing  twenty-five  pounds, 
with  each  tin  just  as  long  as  the  width  of  one  of  my 
sledges,  so  that  they  stowed  compactly. 

These  biscuit,  when  perfectly  dry,  were  as  sweet 
and  crisp  and  fresh  as  any  cake,  and  in  a  division 
of  four  men  one  tin  lasted  a  trifle  over  six  days. 
This  did  not  give  the  biscuit  time  to  become  moist 
or  soft  from  the  drifting  snow. 

Our  tea  also  was  compressed  to  save  hulk. 

A  daily  ration  of  one  pound  of  pemmican,  one 
pound  of  biscuits,  four  ounces  of  condensed  milk, 
and  half  an  ounce  of  compressed  tea,  with  six 
ounces  of  alcohol  or  oil  for  fuel,  will  keep  a  man 
in  good  working  condition  for  an  indefinite  period 
even  in  the  coldest  of  weather,  and  this  has  been 
the  standard  ration  on  all  my  polar  sledge-trips. 

It  is  policy  to  keep  the  dogs  as  well,  if  not  better, 
fed  than  oneself,  and  one  pound  of  pemmican  per 
day  is  sufficient  to  keep  a  dog  healthy  and  strong. 
When  necessary,  an  Eskimo  dog  can  keep  hard  at 
work  for  some  time  on  very  little  to  eat.  On  the 
other  hand,  an  occasional  double  ration,  if  condi- 
tions permit,  produces  good  results. 

In  my  expedition  of  1891-92  I  deliberately 
planned  to  use  dogs  for  food  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  polar  exploration.  As  the  dogs 
wore  out,  we  fed  them  to  those  remaining  or  ate 
them  ourselves,  thus  making  our  load  of  provi- 
sions last  much  longer.     This  has  been  the  princi- 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  261 

pie  of  all  my  subsequent  trips,  and  results  ha 
fully  proved  it  to  be  a  sound  one. 

My  parties  in  the  field  have  had  two  meals  a 
day,  one  in  the  morning,  the  other  in  the  evening. 
On  the  polar  trips  the  party  which  went  ahead  to 
break  a  way  for  the  main  party  was  allowed  tea 
and  a  lunch  at  noon,  so  strenuous  was  the  work. 

Essential  working-tools  of  a  sledge-party  over 
sea  ice  comprise  pick-axes,  ice  lances,  snow  kn'r 
hatchets,  spades,  and  coils  of  walrus  line.  Every 
one  of  my  sledges  carried  a  light,  special  doul»I<- 
pointed  pick-ax  weighing  five  pounds,  with  a  se- 
lected hickory  handle.  When  we  encountered  a 
serious  pressure  ridge  or  a  zone  of  rough  nibble- 
ice,  the  sledges  stopped,  the  dogs  lay  down  and 
went  to  sleep  instantly,  and  every  man  in  the 
party  pulled  a  pick-ax  from  the  upstanders  of  his 
sledge  and  stepped  forward  to  chop  a  trail  for  the 
sledges  through  this  zone  of  ice.  This  trail  had 
already  been  indicated  by  me  or  some  member  of 
the  party  scouting  in  advance.  As  a  result,  trails 
were  very  quickly  made. 

Another  very  valuable  instrument,  used  on  the 
last  expedition  only,  was  an  ice  lance.  There  was 
one  of  these  also  for  each  sledge.  Reconnoitering 
one  day  in  a  big  second-hand  military  establish- 
ment in  New  York,  I  saw  a  lot  of  vieions-looking 
boarding-pikes.  It  occurred  to  me  at  once  that  by 
simply  shortening  and  changing  the  shape  of  these 


262  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

lances  they  would  make  valuable  ice-cutters,  and  I 
immediately  ordered  several  dozens.  I  had  their 
shape  changed  somewhat,  fitted  them  with  shorter 
handles,  and  found  them  invaluable  as  an  ice  tool, 
both  for  cutting  and  chopping  ice-blocks  in  the  way 
of  the  sledges  and  for  drilling  holes  in  the  ice. 

Every  sledge  and  every  man  had  a  twenty-inch- 
long  saw-knife, — knife  on  one  edge,  saw  on  the 
other, — with  a  strong  handle.  These  were  used 
for  repairing  sledges,  for  chopping  up  pemmican, 
and  were  specially  useful  for  cutting  the  snow- 
blocks  from  which  our  shelters  were  made  at  each 
camp.  With  every  man  cutting  these  blocks,  it  did 
not  take  long  to  erect  a  snow  house.  Hatchets  are 
useful  for  ice  work,  for  repairing,  and  for  chop- 
ping up  pemmican  for  the  dogs. 

A  light,  narrow-bladed  spade  for  every  four- 
man  unit  of  my  party  was  found  very  satisfactory 
^in  building  igloos. 

My  firearms  outfit  comprised  two  Winchester 
40-44  carbines,  each  weighing  only  a  trifle  over  five x 
pounds,  with  magazines  carrying  ten  or  eleven 
cartridges.  These  rifles  are  heavy  enough  for 
seals  or  polar  bear,  the  only  game  there  was  any 
chance  of  our  encountering  on  the  ice.  They  were 
carried  pistol  fashion  in  a  canvas  holster  at  the  up- 
standers  of  the  sledges,  so  that  if  game  was 
j  sighted,  there  was  no  delay.  One  had  simply  to 
»  snatch  the  rifle  out  of  its  holster  and  use  it. 

Every  member  of  the  party  had  a  pair  of  snow- 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  268 

shoes.  Snow-shoes  may  be  a  life  preserver  for  a 
man  in  sea-ice  work  in  enabling  him  to  cross  >  onng 
ice  which  would  be  absolutely  impossible  without 
them.  Members  of  my  party  had  snow-shoes  six 
feet  long  and  a  foot  wide?  The  Eskimos  snow- 
shoes  were  five  feet  long  and  a  foot  wide.  All 
were  made  by  Dunham  of  Norway,  Maine,  the  best 
snow-shoes  I  ever  saw. 

Another  important  item  of  equipment  on  my 
last  sledge-journey  was  an  entirely  new  alcohol- 
stove  of  my  own  design,  which  I  spent  hours  in 
perfecting  and  trying  out  during  the  long  winter 
night.  This  new  device  worked  splendidly,  en- 
abling us  to  melt  ice  and  make  tea  in  ten  minutes, 
a  process  which  had  on  previous  trips,  with  the 
old  style  stoves,  taken  a  full  hour.  A  saving  of 
something  over  an  hour  and  half  every  day  on  a 
long  journey  over  the  sea  ice  may  mean  the  dif- 
ference between  success  and  failure.  The  hour 
and  a  half  thus  saved  can  either  be  utilized  for 
sleep  to  keep  the  members  of  the  party  more  fit 
under  the  severe  strain  to  which  they  are  sub- 
jected; or  it  can  be  utilized  for  traveling,  with  a 
resulting  increase  in  the  distance  covered  in  each 
march. 

The  instrumental  outfit  for  a  sledge  journey 
of  any  length  should  include  a  theodolite,  a  sextant, 
and  artificial  horizon,  compasses,  chronometers^ 
thermometers,  a  good  field  "hiss,  cameras,  and,  for 
sea-ice   work,   a  light   sounding-equipment.     The 


264  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

theodolite  we  carried  on  the  north-polar  trip  was 
a  small  traveler's,  made  by  Fauth  &  Company  of 
Washington,  D.  C.  It  was  equipped  not  only  with 
a  tripod,  but  had  an  arrangement  by  which  it  could 
be  mounted  on  its  case  for  use  when  the  wind  was 
blowing  hard  enough  to  make  the  tripod  too  vi- 
bratory to  be  practicable. 

The  sextant  and  artificial  horizon  were  of  stand- 
ard pattern  and  the  artificial  horizon  was  of  spe- 
cial form  designed  by  me  expressly  for  this  jour- 
ney, with  a  wooden  trough  and  a  different  method 
of  returning  the  mercury  to  the  bottle,  the  entire 
equipment  representing  a  reduction  of  some 
pounds  in  weight  from  the  standard  mercurial 
horizon  as  furnished  by  dealers. 

Our  chronometers  were  made  by  the  E.  Howard 
Watch  Company  of  Boston,  the  Elgin  Co.  and  the 
Waltham  Co.  They  were  pocket-size,  open-face, 
stem- winders,  kept  good  time,  were  light  in  weight, 
easy  to  read,  and  were  worn  suspended  by  a  cord 
Lround  the  neck  inside  our  clothing. 

Binoculars  were  the  Academic  Optiques,  alumi- 
num, and  extremely  light ;  thermometers  were  sup- 
plied by  Green  of  New  York,  being  the  regular 
maximum  and  minimum  self -registering  kind ;  and 
cameras  were  the  Eastman  Kodaks  No.  4,  with 
rolls  of  twelve  negatives  each,  daylight  reloading. 

The  sounding  equipment  was  new  on  this  expe- 
dition, never  having  been  taken  on  previous  trips, 
and  consisted  at  the  start  of  two  thousand  fathoms 


SLEDGE  EQUIPMENT  S65 

(twelve  thousand  feet)  of  specially  made  Bteel 
piano  wire  in  two  reels  of  a  thousand  fathoms 
each,  the  net  weight  of  each  reel  being  twelve  and 
a  fraction  pounds.  The  sounding-lead  was  cut 
down  from  its  original  weight  to  a  final  weight  of 
about  fourteen  pounds,  and  had  at  the  lower  end 
an  automatic  clam-shell  device  for  bringing  up 
samples  of  the  bottom. 

The  sounding  wire  was  marked  in  one  hundred 
fathoms  by  bits  of  brass  soldered  to  it,  and  was 
wound  round  a  wooden  reel  that  could  be  attached 
temporarily  either  to  the  front  or  rear  end  of 
a  sledge  for  making  soundings,  and  then,  by  the 
attachment  of  cranks  at  both  ends,  the  wire  could 
be  reeled  up  again  when  the  sounding  had  been 
completed. 

Some  five  hundred  fathoms  of  this  were  lost  by 
breaks  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  trip  north,  but 
when  Bartlett  left  me  there  were  some  fifteen  hun- 
dred fathoms  left,  and  fearing  to  lose  more  of  it, 
I  did  not  attempt  to  make  any  more  soundings 
until  just  south  of  the  pole  on  the  return  trip.  It 
was  fortunate  that  I  did  this,  as  in  making  the 
sounding  the  mishap  which  I  had  feared  occurred, 
resulting  in  the  loss  of  all  but  a  hundred  or  two 
feet  of  the  wire  and  making  it  impossible  for  me  to 
make  further  soundings  on  the  return  trip,  as  I 
had  planned,  to  supplement  those  made  by  Marvin 
and  Bartlett. 

The  one  sounding,  however,  showing  that  the 


L 


266  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

central  polar  ocean  is  probably  not  less  than  two 
miles  in  depth,  is  of  pronounced  interest  to  the 
geographer  and  oceanographer. 

Our  instruments  were  all  kept  in  a  special  in- 
strument box.  This  was  a  milk  case  covered  care- 
fully with  canvas  to  keep  the  fine  snow  from  being 
blown  into  it,  and  reinforced  with  tin  on  the  cor- 
ners to  withstand  rough  usage  on  the  trip.  The 
sextant  was  suspended  from  the  cover  of  the  box 
to  protect  it  from  shocks. 

The  instrument  box  was  always  stowed  on  the 
middle  of  the  special  sledge  used  to  carry  such 
equipment,  where  it  would  get  the  least  motion 
and  pounding,  and  rested  on  a  cushion  of  spare 
clothing. 

The  theodolite,  in  its  box,  was  carried  in  a  can- 
vas case  in  front  of  the  upstanders  of  the  sledge, 
resting  on  some  item  of  spare  fur  clothing,  and 
kept  in  place  by  elastic  lashings  of  rawhide  line. 

The  camera,  thermometers,  note-books,  field- 
glasses,  and  Winchester  carbine  were  carried  in 
canvas  pockets  by  the  upstanders  of  the  sledge, 
and  arranged  in  such  a  way  that  any  one  of  them 
could  be  obtained  instantly  for  use  without  having 
to  unlash  any  portion  of  the  load. 


CHAPTER  X 

SLEDGE-TEA  VELING 

SLEDGE-traveling  is  the  other  twin  of  ice 
navigation,  the  two  together  forming  polar  ex- 
ploration. The  purpose  of  sledge-traveling  is  the 
transformation  of  food  into  miles,  and  the  test 
of  its  perfection  is  the  maximum  number  of  miles 
for  the  minimum  amount  of  food.  Sledge-travel- 
ing may  be  of  several  kinds.  It  may  be  over  the 
frozen  surface  of  polar  seas,  or  along  a  coast  line, 
or  over  the  elevated  snow  surfaces  of  the  great 
interior  ice-caps  of  Greenland  and  the  antarctic 
continent. 

In  the  attempts  to  reach  the  north  pole  the  first 
of  these  methods  was  among  the  first  to  be  at- 
tempted, the  effort  to  sledge  north  from  a  ship. 
Then  the  second  came  into  favor.  The  fourth 
method  was  the  last  to  be  exploited,  and  in  this  the 
writer  feels  he  has  some  claim  to  having  developed 
a  new  departure  in  polar  sledging,  through  his 
years  of  Greenland  ice-cap  journeys. 

In  considering  the  two  great  prizes  of  polar  ex- 
ploration, the  north  pole  and  the  south  pole,  the  at- 
tainment of  the  former  was  dependent  upon  pro- 

267 


268  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

ficiency  in  sledging  over  the  surface  of  a  polar 
ocean ;  while  the  latter — in  fact  all  antarctic  sledge 
work — is  of  the  fourth  kind,  the  traverse  of  the 
continuous  permanent  interior  ice-cap  of  the  an- 
tarctic continent. 

Still  considering  these  prizes,  the  great  dis- 
tinction and  contrast  between  north  polar  and 
south  polar  sledge-traveling  must  be  clearly  and 
constantly  borne  in  mind.  In  the  north  polar 
game  the  last  stage  of  the  journey — from  500  to 
600  miles,  according  to  the  route  selected,  whether 
Grant  Land  or  Greenland  or  Franz-Josef  Land — 
is  over  the  frozen  surface  of  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
This  ocean  breaks  up  every  summer,  the  great 
fields  of  ice  drifting  under  the  influence  of  wind 
and  tide  to  an  eventual  exit  into  the  North  Atlan- 
tic; and  at  any  time  of  year,  even  the  depth  of  the 
severest  winter,  a  storm  will  rift  the  icy  surface 
in  many  places  with  cracks  and  lanes  of  open 
water,  and  throw  up  great  ridges  of  ice-blocks  by 
the  pressure  of  the  ice-fields.  No  place  on  the 
frozen  surface  of  the  ocean  can  be  counted  upon 
to  be  in  the  same  locality  a  month  later. 

From  these  facts  result  the  following  fundamen- 
tal circumstances  in  north  polar  sledge-travel: 
first,  that  the  sledge-journey  must  be  undertaken 
in  the  very  coldest  part  of  the  year,  so  that  the 
sea  ice  may  be  most  firmly  cemented  together,  and 
that  open  water,  if  it  does  appear,  may  be  most 
quickly  frozen  over  again  by  the  extreme  cold. 


I 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  209 

Second,  that  no  caches  or  depots  of  provisions 
can  be  deposited  on  the  outward  journey,  to  be 
picked  up  on  the  return,  thus  lightening  loads  and 
increasing  speed,  because  there  would  not  be  one 
chance  in  ten  of  ever  finding  them  again.  Every- 
thing used  on  the  journey,  therefore,  must  be  car- 
ried the  entire  distance,  and  the  objects  of  the 
journey  must  be  accomplished  within  the  limits  of 
a  single  sledging  season,  from  the  time  a  little 
light  returns  in  February  to  the  breaking  up  of  the 
ice  in  June,  or  the  whole  thing  must  be  done  over 


again. 


The  average  layman  will  probably  consider  the 
first  of  these  conditions,  the  extreme  cold,  as  the 
most  serious.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  second  is 
the  most  vital,  and  is  the  one  wThich  has  caused  the 
discovery  of  the  north  pole  to  drag  along  through 
hundreds  of  years,  while  the  south  pole  was  at- 
tained twice  within  thirteen  years  after  the  first 
sledge-journey  in  that  region. 

In  the  south  polar  game  the  last  stage  of  the 
journey — from  700  to  800  miles — is  over  the  eter- 
nal surface  of  the  glaciers  and  the  interior  ice- 
cap. On  this  surface  a  depot  of  provisions  put 
down  to-day  will  be  found  in  the  same  place  to- 
morrow or  next  month  or  next  year  or  ten  years 
from  now.  From  this  fact  result  unique  and  ideal 
conditions  for  the  establishment  of  caches  to  any 
extent  desired,  so  that  a  returning  party  may  come 
dashing  back  the  entire  distance  with  nearly  empty 


270  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

sledges.  A  journey  of  any  length  in  that  region 
is  only  a  matter  of  time. 

Second,  sledge-travel  in  the  antarctic  can  be 
carried  on  in  the  summer  season  of  greatest 
warmth  and  continuous  light. 

On  the  other  hand,  sledge-traveling  to  the  south 
pole  encounters  the  serious  disadvantage  of  the 
pronounced  altitude,  10,000  to  11,000  feet  in  the 
last  stages  of  the  journey,  with  its  decrease  in 
efficiency  in  men,  dogs,  or  ponies. 

My  knowledge  of  conditions  to  be  encountered 
in  overland  sledging  was  gained  in  numerous  short 
trips  in  Greenland  and  two  long  journeys  of  1200 
miles  each  across  northern  Greenland's  ice-cap, 
the  "inland  ice." 

To  the  average  reader  the  expression  "inland 
ice"  suggests  a  surface  of  ice.  This  idea  is  er- 
roneous. Greenland  is  a  great  glacial  country, 
with  an  area  of  740,000  or  750,000  square  miles, 
fully  four  fifths  of  which  are  covered  by  the  in- 
land ice,  the  only  portion  of  it  that  could  be  called 
land  being  a  ribbon  of  mountains,  valleys,  and  deep 
fiords  along  the  coast.  This  narrow  strip  of  land 
is  for  the  most  part  from  five  to  twenty-five  miles 
wide,  but  there  are  several  places  where  it  is  sixty 
or  eighty  miles. 

The  interior  of  Greenland,  or  the  inland  ice,  is 
so  cold  that  it  gets  virtually  no  rain,  and  the  snow 
does  not  have  a  chance  to  melt  in  the  long  summer 
day.     So  the  snow  has  accumulated  century  after 


HUGGING  THE   SHORE  TO   GET    AROUND    HI  GE    ICE    FIELDS 

Note  the  yacht-like  lines 


PARTY    LEAVING   THE  "ROOSEVELT      FOR   I  APE   COL1    MIMA 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  273 

century  until  it  has  filled  the  va. .         jid  not  only 
leveled  them  with  the  tops  bnt 

the  highest  of  tfa       ..iount: ...-:  :ad- 

ually  buried  hundreds  and  even 
deep  in  ice  and  snow.     To-day 

enland,  with  its  li 
700  miles  in  Tnavi-mnm  -  1 4000  1 

9000  feet  or  more  above  sea-It 
vated  and  unbroken  plateau  of  <:  : 

i  Greenlanf.    fa    zhe   largest    island    in    the    world  -.:rtal 

length  from  Cape  Farewell,  its  soutacn  exizentj  m  • 
tnde.  to  Cape  Morris  K.  Jessnp.  its  northern  extreinrrr  in  E 

si— e   ii   :;  t    .--_-  -  :>:  S:    -   -  -  "■      -    •   _  .: 

:r:—  ^1;  —  ;u:i   : :  -    t  7 

-•-.s     :_,     7,:     7  .      :       :     :         :      •  7         .  : 

St.  Lo".i-5 

In  regard  to  its  area.  fke  ligMu  prions  atrtnoriiies  vary 

":  r  :' .  zz~L  .-  r.ir  ~  .:  -  z~--.  'Szziz-.  i  r.;:-:  -.  -:     :  --_•:  ;  .  —  -•  :::: 
Alaska;    Mexico;    Columbia:    Per-         7   rtngaes-  i  :riea; 

7    -;.-.  •  Its  iri.€-ri:r  i;         •  -  -  :-  "    "  ~     '    -       " 

:   •     _    : :     r\-.\:     :. -      :   t:   7i7>    -  "  ;  •  • 

-  -    .  i         -  -  --  ■  - 

a   strip   of   TBTTingT  width   along  tits  fiiaflfr.   i«l«  mn^'- 

7  - ■:  r :  i :  :  .  -  . ' 

-'t-i    77-'     •        :  ■      .    -  -    ~  .    "  .    -: 

sphere   c:    :r7_-  7   zjz :<i    I-:>:zzzz.z.  

us  vill  be  in  line  -  -       7 

:ze  rr.re  r ■>§      ;   -    :.z :■-.   ::  :_   _-t   :•;  —  7.: ._:       -       :      -  :r:~   F_- 
r.7-1-    p:-jsess:r      :    Zizz.z.rj     z.   ::.-:    77  =-s :.ri    77fz    --.      -         "  ... 
zzzz  z.z    ~z~Z-.LZ-i.     ' -:   z:    7  -zzz.i.z-.  :         zz  ■  .:         *   "    ■-"      --- 
it  later,  or  trill  obtaining  it  now  mean  cfcygag  the  incident  and 
placing  Greenland  wfcerr  it  wmtak 

•reilir:   :•  "    "         • 

>\:?«    hi.v;    ;:r:7v7    :rj:7.:;    zz.zz.    tie    '.     zzzz    77:  -.  -    :      :  z  :.*- 

777.  e  r r  is        7.    .  -   .    .  - 
possibly  gold,  in  its  roe_-.-  T^**l  fc*5  «ffira^J 

1   s"_±:.-:~:  :;    cjl....:   ;_-.    ..__"       -  -—    — ' 


274  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

On  this  great  frozen  Sahara  of  the  North  the 
wind  never  ceases  to  blow.  It  invariably  radiates 
from  the  center  of  the  ice-cap  outward,  blowing 
perpendicularly  to  the  nearest  portion  of  the  coast 
land,  except  when  storms  of  unusually  large  pro- 
portions sweep  across  the  country.  Such  a  regu- 
lar thing  are  the  winds  of  these  regions,  and  so 
closely  do  they  follow  the  rule  of  perpendicularity 
to  the  coast,  that  it  is  always  easy  to  determine 
the  direction  of  nearest  land.    A  sudden  change  in 

limited  means,  it  may,  like  Alaska,  prove  a  sound  and  most  val- 
uable business  investment. 

The  abundance  of  native  coal  and  the  numerous  glacial  streams 
which  come  tumbling  into  the  southern  fiords  from  the  great  in- 
terior ice  sheet  represent  enormous  potential  energy,  which  might 
be  translated  into  nitrate  and  electrical  energy,  to  make  Green- 
land a  power-house  for  the  United  States. 

Greenland  represents  ice,  coal,  and  power  in  inexhaustible 
quantities.  And  stranger  things  have  happened  than  that  Green- 
land, in  our  hands,  might  furnish  an  important  North  Atlantic 
naval  and  aeronautical  base. 

A  North  Pacific  naval  base  for  the  United  States  in  the  Aleu- 
tian Archipelago  is  a  recognized  possibility.  Why  not  a  simi- 
lar base  in  the  North  Atlantic?  Cape  Farewell  in  Greenland  is 
but  little  north  of  Sitka.  It  is  in  the  same  latitude  as  St.  Pe- 
tersburg; Christiania,  Great  Britain's  naval  base  in  the  Orkneys, 
and  the  northern  entrance  to  the  North  Sea,  which  Great  Britain 
has  incessantly  patrolled  with  her  war-ships  summer  and  winter 
for  two  years. 

There  are  fiords  in  southern  Greenland  which  would  hold  our 
entire  navy,  with  narrow,  deep  water,  impregnable  entrances. 

Thirty-hours  steaming  due  south  from  Cape  Farewell  by  thirty- 
five-knot  war-craft  would  put  them  in  the  transatlantic  routes 
midway  between  New  York  and  the  English  Channel. 

With  the  rapid  shrinking  of  distance  in  this  age  of  speed  and 
invention,  Greenland  may  be  of  crucial  importance  to  us  in  the 
future. 

— From  Peary  letter,  September,  1017,  suggesting  Den- 
mark give  the  United  States  Greenland  with  the  Danish  West 
Indies. 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  275 

the  wind  indicates  the  presence  of  Large  fiords,  and 
the  crossing  of  a  divide  can  be  detected  by  the  area 
of  calm  or  changeable  winds  which  prevail,  and 
which  are  followed  by  winds  blowing  from  the  op- 
posite direction. 

Sweeping  along  the  most  direct  path  to  the 
coast,  and  with  greater  or  less  velocity,  the  wind 
always  carries  with  it  a  flying  mass  of  snow,  which, 
on  reaching  the  mountains,  settles  in  the  valleys 
or  goes  swirling  over  the  cliffs  into  the  sea.  "When 
there  is  only  a  light  breeze  the  snow  is  very  fine 
and  flies  only  a  few  feet  in  the  air ;  but  the  stronger 
the  wind,  the  coarser  the  whirling  snow  becomes, 
and  the  greater  the  depth  of  its  current.  In  bliz- 
zards on  this  desert  of  snow  this  drift  surpasses 
in  fury  the  sand-storms  of  the  African  Sahara, 
the  snow  rising  in  the  air  hundreds  of  feet  in  hiss- 
ing, roaring,  blinding  torrents,  which  make  it  al- 
most impossible  for  one  to  breathe,  and  which  bury 
anything  stationary  in  a  short  time.  It  penetrates 
like  water,  and  on  stepping  into  the  drift  its  sur- 
face is  very  nearly  as  tangible  and  sharply  de- 
fined as  that  of  a  pool  of  water  of  like  depth. 

The  continuous  transportation  of  vast  quanti- 
ties of  the  snow  by  the  wind  is  a  most  important 
factor  in  retarding  the  increase  in  the  depth  of  the 
ice-cap,  and  in  my  opinion  is  a  factor  equaling 
possibly  the  effects  of  evaporation,  melting,  and 
glacial  precipitation  all  combined.  Only  investi- 
gations carried  on  for  a  period  of  years  can  defi- 


276  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

nitely  determine  whether  this  snow  deposit  is  in- 
creasing or  decreasing  as  the  years  pass. 

Undoubtedly  the  coldest  spot  in  the  world  is  to 
be  found  in  the  center  of  the  great  ice  during  the 
polar  night,  where  at  an  altitude  of  one  or  two 
miles  it  gets  the  full  benefit  of  the  frigid  polar  air ; 
is  several  hundred  miles  from  the  polar  seas,  and 
is  insulated  by  a  mile  or  more  of  ice  and  snow 
from  any  radiation  of  heat  from  the  earth  be- 
neath. 

During  the  winter  months  the  whole  surface  of 
the  inland  ice  is  covered  with  a  layer  of  fine,  dry 
snow.  The  noonday  sun  of  the  late  spring  causes 
the  snow  along  the  edge  of  the  ice  to  become  soft, 
and  the  freezing  of  this  at  night  makes  a  thin 
crust.  As  this  layer  of  crust  creeps  into  the  in- 
terior with  the  approach  of  summer,  the  snow  on 
the  edge  of  the  ice-cap  turns  to  slush  and  finally 
melts,  forming  pools  and  streams  which  eat  into 
the  ice,  opening  up  old  crevasses  and  new  ones 
as  well.  This  condition  likewise  extends  into  the 
interior  in  the  wake  of  the  crust  and  the  summer 
heat,  and  eroding  streams,  working  on  the  border 
of  the  cap,  make  it  so  rough  as  to  be  in  places 
quite  impassable. 

Traveling  into  the  interior  for  fifteen  or  twenty 
miles,  one  finds  that  the  mountains  along  the  coast 
have  quite  disappeared  under  the  landward  con- 
vexity of  the  ice-cap,  and  the  surface,  which  near 
the  coast  is  composed  of  many  hummocks,  gradu- 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  277 

ally  merges  into  long,  flat  swells,  which  in  turn 
merge  into  a  gently  rising  plain  and  finally  into 
a  level  surface. 

In  my  journey  across  the  ice-cap  of  northern 
Greenland  in  1891  I  was  continually  turned  from 
my  course  on  the  upward  march  by  numerous 
crevasses  and  steep  slopes  which  occur  along  the 
edge  of  the  inland  ice.  These  crevasses  some- 
times cover  a  tract  several  miles  wide,  and  are 
usually  marked  by  peculiar  ice-mounds  two  or 
three  feet  in  height.  Covered  with  a  light  crust, 
the  crevasses  are  difficult  to  detect,  and  one  must 
be  constantly  on  the  alert  to  avoid  getting  into 
them.  At  times  it  is  necessary  to  reconnoiter  for 
hours  before  safe  snow-bridges  across  these 
treacherous  places  can  be  found,  and  on  several 
occasions  I  nearly  lost  all  our  provisions  and  dogs 
when  the  sledges  broke  through. 

Determined  to  avoid  such  conditions  on  the 
return  trip,  I  traveled  well  inland.  Here,  how- 
ever, deep,  soft  snow  makes  sledge-traveling 
difficult;  so  on  my  second  journey  across  Green- 
land, in  1895,  I  chose  an  intermediate  route,  hop- 
ing to  avoid  crevasses  and  slopes  and  slippery  ice 
as  well  as  soft  going.  This  route  proved  to  be  by 
far  the  best  one,  the  surface  being  much  better, 
and  the  distance  a  few  miles  less  than  by  either  of 
the  other  two  routes. 

In  addition  to  the  wind  there  is  another  pecul- 
iarity of  the  inland  ice  which  adds  to  the  diffi- 


278  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

culties  to  be  encountered  in  this  work.  That  is  the 
extreme  intensity  of  the  sunlight,  which  can  be 
realized  only  by  those  who  have  experienced  it. 
During  the  summer  months  the  sun  shines  con- 
tinuously, and  this  continuous  brilliancy  is  inten- 
sified a  hundredfold  by  the  reflection  from  endless 
fields  of  glistening,  sparkling  snow,  unrelieved  by 
a  single  object.  The  strongest  eyes  can  stand 
such  a  blinding  glare  only  a  few  hours  without  pro- 
tection. We  always  wore  heavy-smoked  glasses, 
and  when  in  camp  found  it  impossible  to  sleep 
without  still  further  protecting  our  eyes  by  tying 
a  narrow  band  of  fur  about  them  to  exclude  the 
light.  Only  when  a  storm  is  brewing  does  this 
intense  light  become  subdued.  At  such  times, 
however,  the  sky  and  snow  take  on  a  peculiar  gray, 
opaque  light  which  is  even  more  trying  than  the 
sunlight. 

To  direct  a  course  across  unbroken  fields  of 
snow,  with  absolutely  nothing  to  guide  or  fix  the 
eye,  is  a  task  which  requires  a  good  deal  of  ex- 
perience. And  to  force  a  team  of  dogs  dragging 
a  heavy  sledge-load  into  blank  nothingness  is  still 
more  difficult.  During  dull  or  foggy  weather 
the  work  of  keeping  a  direct  course  becomes  par- 
ticularly arduous.  For  days  I  have  traveled  into 
gray  nothingness,  feeling,  but  unable  to  see,  the 
snow  beneath  my  snow-shoes,  and  the  long  days 
and  nights  of  marching  when  it  was  almost  im- 
possible to  see  the  length  of  the  sledge  were  among 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  «79 

the  most  trying  experiences  I  had  on  the  inland 
ice. 

On  both  my  journeys  across  the  ice-cap  I  was 
accompanied  by  only  one  man,  and  with  compass 
in  hand  one  of  us  would  take  the  lead,  go  ahead  as 
far  as  it  was  possible  without  losing  sight  of  the 
party,  (and  at  times  this  would  be  only  a  matter  of 
a  few  yards),  put  himself  on  the  course,  and  then 
wait  for  the  other  to  come  up  with  the  dogs  and 
sledges.  At  other  times  we  devised  a  wind-vane 
and  used  the  wind  as  a  guide,  taking  a  compass 
direction  of  it  every  quarter-  or  half-hour,  keep- 
ing the  wind-vane  at  the  proper  angle,  and  in  this 
way  making  a  fair  course.  The  endeavor  to  keep 
a  direct  course  for  any  length  of  time  under  such 
conditions  imposes  such  a  strain  on  mind  and  body 
that  travel  sometimes  becomes  impossible.  In 
addition  to  this,  the  feeling  of  fatigue  and  heavi- 
ness which  are  the  result  of  the  fog  and  altitude 
make  traveling  still  more  difficult. 

A  severe  and  protracted  storm  is  one  of  the 
most  disagreeable  features  of  sledge-traveling 
whether  over  land  or  sea  ice,  and  preparations 
should  be  immediately  made  to  camp  as  soon  as 
one  is  seen  to  be  approaching  If  the  equipment 
does  not  include  a  tent,  a  snow  igloo  should  be 
built  as  quickly  as  possible.  If  there  is  not  time 
for  this,  then  a  dugout  can  be  made  in  a  snow-bank 
or  a  snow-wall  erected  as  a  shelter  from  the  wind 
and  driving  snow.    Everything  possible  should  be 


280  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

carried  inside  the  tent  or  igloo,  and  the  dogs  se- 
curely fastened  outside.  Storms  on  the  ice-cap  are 
so  severe  that,  when  possible,  the  dogs  should  be 
protected  from  them  by  a  snow-wall.  I  have 
been  confined  to  tent  or  igloo  for  days  at  a  time 
by  these  storms,  but  the  most  accursed  hours  I 
ever  spent  on  the  ice-cap  were  those  spent  in  a 
small  tent  six  long  days  and  nights,  five  thousand 
feet  above  sea-level,  during  a  furious  storm  which 
I  knew  was  destroying  my  last  chances  for  finding 
a  ton  and  a  half  of  supplies,  including  all  my  pem- 
mican  and  alcohol,  which  I  had  cached  the  year 
before  for  my  spring  work  in  1895. 

Any  one  seeing  our  camp  at  the  end  of  one  of 
these  storms  would  believe  us  buried  alive,  the 
only  signs  of  our  presence  being  the  snow-mounds 
covering  us  and  the  dogs. 

One  storm  will  play  more  havoc  with  the  dogs 
and  their  harnesses  and  traces  than  the  work  of 
two  weeks'  continuous  traveling.  To  get  the 
sledges  and  the  dogs  and  tent  dug  out,  to  say 
nothing  of  untangling  and  repairing  the  dogs' 
traces,  which  become  terribly  twisted  and  tangled, 
is  enough  to  keep  two  men  busy  for  hours.  After 
almost  every  snowfall  we  had  to  help  the  dogs 
drag  the  sledges.  For  this  purpose  a  long  line 
of  walrus  hide  was  tied  to  the  front  of  the 
sledge,  running  out  over  the  dogs,  so  that  one  of 
us  could  attach  it  to  our  shoulders  and  pull  in  ad- 
vance of  the  team.    To  the  side  of  the  sledge  a 


1 

M 

•-°^ 

OVER    A    PRESS!  BE    RIDGE 


A      II  ALT     <>\      'IT  I  i:      M   Mil    H 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  288 

short  line  was  fastened  maiding  the  other  man 
to  pull  and  drive  the  dogs  al    the  Bame  time. 

Dragging  the  sledges  through  soft  snow  is  very 
disheartening  work  for  the  dogs,  and  every  ex- 
pedient that  ingenuity  can  devise  or  that  is  known 
to  the  Eskimos  must  be  used  to  urge  them  forward. 
Only  one  thing  can  make  traveling  harder  on  the 
inland  ice,  and  that  is  a  precipitation  of  frost, 
which,  covering  the  surface  like  sand,  makes 
the  sledges  drag  like  so  many  loads  of  lead. 
Dogs  that  in  ordinary  going  can  haul  two  sledges 
at  a  fair  rate  of  speed  require  the  combined  as- 
sistance of  two  men  to  move  one.  For  this  condi- 
tion of  snow  even  icing  the  runners  seems  to  do 
but  little,  if  any,  good. 

This  process  of  covering  sledge-runners  with  a  | 
coating  of  ice,  taught  me  by  the  Eskimos,  is  most 
interesting,  and  wonderfully  increases  the  tractive 
power  of  a  sledge  in  low  temperatures. 

A  long  strip  of  thick  walrus  skin,  which,  when 
frozen,  is  the  toughest  and  most  unbreakable  of  all 
substances,  the  same  width  as  the  runner  and  from 
which  the  hair  has  not  been  removed,  is  first  ap- 
plied to  the  bottom  of  each  runner,  being  fastened 
by  lashings  of  rawhide  run  through  slits  in  the 
edges  of  the  walrus  hide.  After  this  has  been  al- 
lowed to  freeze  solid  the  entire  length  of  each 
runner  is  covered  with  soft  snow  which  has  been 
dipped  in  warm  urine.  This  is  pressed  and 
shaped  with  the  hand  until  it  is  three-quarters  of 


284  SECRETS  OF  TOLAH  TRAVEL 

an  inch,  perhaps  an  inch,  thick.  When  this  has 
been  given  time  to  freeze  solid  it  is  chipped  and 
made  smooth  with  the  aid  of  a  knife,  and  rubbed 
over  by  hand  with  water.  As  the  dogs  get  tired 
and  the  going  becomes  harder,  the  ice  coating  on 
these  shoes  should  be  renewed  nearly  every  day 
on  inland  ice  cap-work.  The  effect  of  high  eleva- 
tion is  very  perceptible  upon  men  and  dogs,  and 
it  is  difficult  to  force  dogs  to  go  faster  than  at  the 

\  rate  of  two  miles  an  hour.    At  such  times  we  iced 

*  the  sledge-runners  twice  a  day. 

The  routine  on  our  long  marches  was  for  the 
most  of  the  time  about  as  follows :  The  work  of 
caring  for  the  dogs,  harnessing  them  in  the  morn- 
ing and  unharnessing  and  tying  them  to  stakes 
at  night  and  feeding  them  at  the  end  of  the  day's 
march,  was  my  special  work.  During  the  march 
my  companion  took  charge  of  them  while  I  kept 
the  course,  except  when  to  vary  the  monotony  we 
exchanged  duties.  My  companion  always  built 
the  snow  shelter  at  night  which  served  as  a 
kitchen,  and  we  took  turns  acting  as  cook.  The 
man  on  duty  in  the  kitchen  slept  there  all  night, 
and  stood  ready  to  re-secure  any  dogs  which  might 
break  away  during  the  night. 

In  my  first  trip  across  the  ice  cap  of  Greenland 
I  used  a  considerable  number  of  Eskimo  dogs 
which  had  just  been  purchased  from  the  natives 
and  were  entirely  unacquainted  with  us  and  we 
with  them. 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  985 

Naturally  our  unusual  size,  strange  complex- 
ion and  stranger  language  were  at  first  a  source 
of  terror  to  them  and  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
journey  when  a  dog  got  loose  at  night  it  was 
sometimes  quite  an  effort  to  secure  him  again. 
Before  the  journey  was  over  we  had  no  trouble 
with  any  of  our  dogs. 

Other  parties  using  Siberian  dogs  for  the  first 
time  may  have  the  same  experience. 

To  catch  a  loose  dog  sometimes  requires  more 
or  less  time  and  ingenuity  and  may  result  in  a  few 
bites.  Our  usual  method  of  capturing  one  of 
these  polar  wolves  was  to  coax  him  within  reach 
by  throwing  out  morsels  of  meat  to  him,  then 
throw  ourselves  upon  him  and  quickly  bury  his 
head  in  the  snow.  We  soon  became  expert  enough 
in  this  to  avoid  more  than  a  few  bites.  Some- 
times a  dog  is  too  wily  to  be  caught  in  any  such 
way  and  has  to  be  lassooed  and  choked  almost 
senseless  before  he  can  be  put  back  in  harness. 

Up  to  1895  the  basic  principle  of  polar  sledg- 
ing was  that  overland  traveling  was  not  practi- 
cable, that  the  only  highway  lay  along  the  sea-ice 
off  the  coast.  Therefore  the  journey  I  mapped 
out — the  crossing  of  the  inland  ice-cap  of  north- 
ern Greenland — was  an  unprecedented  one  in 
point  of  distance  to  be  covered  without  caches 
or  supply  depots.  The  successful  carrying  out 
of  this  plan  has  shown  the  practicability  of 
the  inland  ice  for  a  road,  and  since  that  time 


28G  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

Greenland  has  been  crossed  by  Nansen  and  Spitz- 
bergen  by  Conway.  The  capabilities  of  overland 
traveling  having  been  about  exhausted  in  1895, 
the  invaluable  experience  gained  in  my  Greenland 
work  was  concentrated  upon  a  persistent  effort  to 
solve  the  polar  question. 

In  this  connection  the  following  grouping  of 
material  may  be  of  interest : 

"My  comprehensive  scheme  for  work  in  Greenland,  based 
upon  the  utilization  of  the  Inland  Ice  for  overland  sledge 
journeys,  and  my  subsequent  development  and  execution,  in 
actual  practice,  of  methods,  means,  and  details,  justify  me,  I 
think,  in  claiming  to  have  originated  a  new  departure  in 
Arctic  work.  Since  my  origination  of  that  departure,  Nansen 
has  crossed  Greenland;  Conway  has  crossed  Spitzbergen ;  and 
if  our  present  idea  of  conditions  in  the  Antarctic  be  correct, 
it  is  entirely  within  the  possibilities,  that  the  conqueror  of  the 
South  Pole  will  achieve  success  by  adopting  my  methods  and 
equipment." — Peary  in  "Northward  Over  the  Great  Ice,"  1898, 
Vol.  I,  page  lvii. 

"The  North  Pole  is  reached." 

In  a  flash  the  news  spread  over  the  world.  The  goal  of 
which  so  many  had  dreamed,  for  which  so  many  had  labored 
and  suffered  and  sacrificed  their  lives,  was  attained.  It  was  in 
September,  1909,  that  the  news  reached  us. 

At  the  same  instant  I  saw  quite  clearly  that  the  original 
plan  of  the  Fram's  third  voyage — the  exploration  of  the  North 
Polar  basin — hung  in  the  balance.  If  the  expedition  was  to  be 
saved,  it  was  necessary  to  act  quickly  and  without  hesitation. 
Just  as  rapidly  as  the  message  had  traveled  over  the  cables  I 
decided  on  my  change  of  front — to  turn  to  the  right-about, 
and  face  to  the  south. 

The  North  Pole,  the  last  problem  but  one  of  popular  inter- 
est in  polar  exploration,  was  solved.  If  I  was  not  to  succeed 
in  arousing  interest  in  my  undertaking,  there  was  nothing  left 


SLEDGE    PARTY    <>\    THK    MARCH     Willi     (.< lOING 


ll  \i:n    i,ni  nc 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  :.'s'.) 

for  me  but  to  try  to  solw  the  Las!  great  problem — the  Smith 
Pole. 

The  British  expedition  was  designed  entirely  tor  Bcientino 
research.    The  pole  was  only  a  Bide-issue,  whereas  La  mj 

tended  plan  it  was  the  main  object. 

If  Peary  could  make  a  record  trip  on  the  Arctic  ice  with 
dogs,  one  ought,  surely,  with  equally  good  tackle,  t"  be  able 
to  beat  Peary's  record. — Amundsen  in  "The  South  Pole,"  1913. 

My  despatch  telling  of  the  discovery  of  the 
north  pole  was  dated  September  6,  1909.  Amund- 
sen sailed  for  the  south  pole  in  June,  1910.  In 
the  nine  months  before  that  time  the  details  of 
my  work  were  known  everywhere.  In  Amund- 
sen's journey  to  the  south  pole  he  used  dogs  ex- 
clusively for  traction;  pemmican  was  his  mainstay 
for  food;  his  clothing  was  fur;  he  bad  one  object, 
the  south  pole. 

Many  are  under  the  impression  that  the  ice  of 
the  polar  sea  is  smooth  as  glass  and  that  explor- 
ers simply  ride  to  their  destination  on  dog 
sledges.  In  reality  the  only  smooth  ice  to  be 
found  is  while  still  on  the  glacial  fringe,  an  ice- 
foot which  extends  along  the  northern  coast  of 
Grant  Land  and  Greenland,  varying  from  one- 
half  to  five  miles  in  width.  Parts  of  the  out«T 
edge  of  this  fringe  rise  and  fall  with  the  tide,  and 
sometimes  large  areas  of  ice  will  separate  from 
it  and  float  off  to  sea,  but  as  a  body  it  is  station- 
ary. Outside  the  fringe  is  a  shore  lead,  or  tidal 
crack,  which  opens  under  1  he  stress  of  offshore 
winds  or  ebb-tides  in  the  Bpring,  and  shuts  under 


290  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

the  effect  of  northerly  winds  and  spring-flood 
tides.  The  constant  battle  which  occurs  here  be- 
tween this  glacial  fringe  and  the  heavy,  detached 
floes  smashes  the  ice  into  all  shapes  and  sizes,  and 
piles  it  up  in  great  pressure  ridges  which  may  be 
a  few  feet  or  a  few  rods  high  and  several  rods  or 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  wide. 

Farther  out  huge  floes  are  hurled  against  one 
another  by  the  wind  and  tides,  thus  forming  more 
pressure  ridges.  Between  these  series  of  ridges 
old  floes  are  found  which  at  times  are  compara- 
tively smooth. 

The  ice  of  the  polar  sea  during  the  summer  is 
constantly  moving,  large  fields  of  ice  ranging 
from  ten  or  fifteen  to  over  one  hundred  feet  in 
thickness,  break  away  from  glaciers,  crushing  the 
thin  ice  and  smashing  against  other  fields,  split- 
ting them  and  forming  new  ridges  until  the  sur- 
face, when  it  again  hardens  in  the  winter,  is  sim- 
ply a  chaos  of  broken  ice.  Nine-tenths  or  more 
of  the  distance  between  northern  Grant  Land  and 
the  pole  is  composed  of  these  floes,  the  rest  being 
ice,  formed  by  the  sea-water  freezing  during  the 
autumn  and  winter  months. 

Continued  northerly  winds  during  the  autumn, 
when  the  masses  of  ice  are  gradually  freezing  to- 
gether, will  force  the  heavier  ice  toward  the  shore 
while  farther  out  the  edges  of  the  ice-floes  where 
they  meet  pile  up  in  regular  series  of  ridges.  If, 
however,  the  winds  are  not  strong  during  the  au- 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  291 

tunm  many  large  ice-fields  separate  from  other 
floes,  and  between  these  masses  of  ice  new  ice, 
fairly  smooth,  and  never  over  eight  or  ten  feet 
thick,  will  form.  This  remains  until  summer  un- 
less violent  winds  occur  to  crush  it  up. 

The  difficulties  and  hardships  of  travel  over 
these  ragged  and  mountainous  pressure  rid.- 
must  be  experienced  to  be  appreciated.  A  trail 
oftentimes  must  be  hewed  out  with  pick-axes,  and 
the  heavily  loaded  sledges  pushed,  pulled,  hoisted, 
and  lowered  over  the  hummocks  and  steep  accliv- 
ities, even  unloaded,  and  the  equipment  carried 
over  on  one's  back.  On  our  return  from  farthest 
north  in  1906  we  encountered  a  seemingly  end- 
less and  indescribable  chaos  of  broken  and  shat- 
tered ice  at  the  place  where  we  had  been  held  op 
by  the  big  lead  on  our  upward  march,  and  it  took 
hours  of  grim  and  exhausting  work  to  carry  us 
through  it. 

Bad  as  the  pressure  ridges  are  for  sledge-trav- 
eling, however,  they  are  not  as  dangerous  or  try- 
ing as  the  lead  or  lanes  of  open  water  caused  by 
the  action  of  wind  and  tides  on  the  ice.  These  are 
in  some  cases  mere  cracks  running  across  the  floes 
in  almost  straight  lines.  In  other  cases  they  take 
an  irregular  course  across  the  ice,  and  are  just 
wide  enough  to  prevent  crossing.  Again  they 
will  be  as  large  as  rivers,  a  mile  or  two  wide  and 
many  miles  long.  For  a  polar-sea  explorer 
these    leads    are    an    omnipresent    nightmare. 


292  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

When  or  where  they  will  occur  is  impossible  to 
tell.  It  may  be  with  a  loud  report  directly  ahead 
of  a  party,  cutting  off  their  advance  northward 
or  cutting  off  their  return  to  land  on  the  way 
back.  It  may  be  directly  in  the  midst  of  camp. 
With  every  northward  march  on  my  last  two 
sledge  journeys  fear  of  impassable  leads  in- 
creased, and  I  would  find  myself  hurrying  toward 
every  pressure  ridge,  fearing  it  concealed  a  lead 
beyond  it.  Arriving  at  the  summit  and  finding 
no  lead  ahead,  I  would  catch  myself  hurrying  on 
in*  the  same  way  at  the  next  one. 

The  best  way  to  cross  wide  leads  is  learned 
only  by  long  experience.  Sometimes  a  detour 
east  or  west  will  result  in  finding  a  place  narrow 
enough  to  permit  long  sledges  to  be  bridged 
across.  In  very  cold  weather  it  may  be  found 
practicable  to  wait  until  new  ice  forms  thick 
enough  to  allow  a  sledge  to  be  rushed  across,  or 
a  lead  may  show  signs  of  closing,  in  which  case  a 
party  can  wait  until  it  is  quite  close  together. 

Occasionally  large  pieces  of  floating  ice  are  to 
be  found  in  a  lead,  forming  a  sort  of  pontoon- 
bridge  across  it.  One  member  of  the  party  goes 
ahead  to  pick  the  way,  jumping  from  one  cake  to 
another,  and  making  sure  the  weight  of  dogs  and 
sledge  will  not  tilt  the  cake,  then  encouraging  the 
dogs  to  go  forward  while  the  driver  of  the  sledge 
steers  it  and  at  the  same  time  balances  the  cake 
of  ice  to  keep  it  from  overturning. 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING 

To  make  dogs  leap  across  a  widening  crack  is 
work  which  requires  an  expert  dog-driver.  Some 
can  do  it  without  any  trouble  by  use  of  the  whip 
and  voice,  others  have  to  go  ahead  of  the  dogs 
and  coax  them  to  make  the  jump  by  holding  their 
hand  low  and  making  a  pretense  of  shaking  a 
morsel  of  food.  Leads  which  are  too  wide  to 
jump  the  dogs  and  sledges  across  can  be  ferried 
by  hacking  out  a  cake  of  ice  large  enough  to  bear 
the  weight  of  dogs  and  sledges.  It  sometimes 
happens  that  in  crossing  a  narrow  lead  it  will 
open  before  the  entire  party  has  crossed.  This 
occurred  on  my  last  trip  north,  an  Eskimo  with 
his  sledge  and  dogs  being  left  on  the  other  side. 
An  impromptu  ferry-boat  was  cut  out  of  the  ice  on 
our  side  of  the  lead,  two  coils  of  rope  were  fas- 
tened to  each  other,  and  slipped  around  the  cake. 
Two  Eskimos  boarded  it ;  a  line  was  thrown  across 
the  lead  to  the  other  Eskimo  while  one  on  our  side 
held  that  end.  Then  the  two  men  on  the  ice-cake 
took  hold  of  the  rope  and  pulled  the  raft  across  the 
lead.  The  dogs  and  sledge  and  other  Eskimo 
were  taken  upon  the  ice-cake,  and  we  hauled  them 
across  to  our  side. 

Leads  which  assume  the  proportions  of  rivers, 
such  as  the  one  we  encountered  on  the  way  north 
in  1906  and  on  our  way  back  the  same  season,  are 
a  different  matter,  and  the  only  thing  one  can 
do  is  to  wait  until  young  ice  forms  strong  enough 
to  afford  a  passage. 


294  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

To  know  how  to  travel  safely  over  young  newly 
formed  ice  is  one  of  the  most  important  items  of 
knowledge  and  training  for  a  polar  explorer. 
-V  Prof.  Marvin  of  my  last  expedition  was  drowned 
by  breaking  through  young  ice  while  returning  in 
command  of  one  of  my  supporting  parties,  and 
one  of  Captain  Cagni's  supporting  parties  was 
totally  lost  in  the  same  way. 

Members  of  my  expedition  had  frequent  narrow 
escapes  in  spite  of  every  precaution,  and  my  en- 
tire party  had  a  very  close  call  in  1906  while  cross- 
ing a  two-mile  wide  stretch  of  extremely  thin  ice. 
Only  the  utilization  of  every  known  trick  and 
method  brought  us  through  in  safety. 

That  there  were  not  more  fatal  accidents  was 
due  largely  to  my  previously  gained  experience 
and  the  careful  and  repeated  training  and  caution- 
ing which  my  men  received. 

Snowshoes  are  a  most  necessary  adjunct  of 
such  travel.  The  distribution  of  a  man's  weight 
effected  by  a  good  pair  of  six-foot  snowshoes  will 
enable  him  to  travel  safely  over  ice  which  would 
not  support  him  for  an  instant  without  them. 

The  Eskimos  of  "Whale  Sound  as  a  result  of 
their  seal  hunting  on  newly  formed  ice  in  the  au- 
tumn, and  their  spring  walrus  hunting  on  young 
ice  at  Cape  Chalon,  have  the  art  of  traversing  thin 
ice  down  fine. 

They  need  to.  It  is  often  a  matter  of  life  or 
death  to  them. 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  S96 

When  young  ice  is  encountered  which  sinks  and 
buckles  under  the  feet  at  each  step,  the  first  pre- 
caution is  to  spread  the  feet — travel  wide— and 
slide  them  along  as  evenly  and  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible without  lifting  them  from  the  ice. 

The  Eskimos  say  that  the  polar  bear  does  this 
when  stalking  seals  on  thin  ice.  If  this  is  not 
enough  the  next  move  is  to  get  down  on  all  fours 
with  both  hands  and  feet  spread  wide  apart  and 
then  shuffle  along  without  lifting  hands  or  feet 
from  the  ice. 

When  an  Eskimo  does  this  in  the  seal  hunt,  he 
usually  has  his  seal-spear  in  one  hand  and  his 
lance  in  the  other,  both  extended  on  the  ice  and 
sliding  with  the  hands. 

The  distribution  of  weight  resulting  from  this 
is  very  effective. 

With  the  polar  explorer  two  ice  lances  form  a 
good  substitute  for  the  Eskimo  spear  and  lance. 

The  final  position  is  to  lie  flat  with  arms  an<l  legB 
extended  and  squirm  and  wiggle  slowly  along.  If 
two  pair  of  six-foot  snowshoes  are  available  to 
still  further  increase  the  bearing  area  and  dis- 
tribute the  weight,  it  is  possible  to  negotiate  sur- 
^prisingly  thin  ice. 

Bartlett  on  his  remarkable  retreat  from  the 
crushed  and  foundered  Karluk  in  Bering  Sea, 
would  never  have  made  his  astonishing  traverse 
of  the  more  than  a  hundred  miles  of  thin  moving 
ice  in  Long  Strait  between  Wrangel  Island  and 


296  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

the  Siberian  coast,  but  for  his  experience  and 
training  with  thin  ice  while  with  me. 

Nor  would  he  have  brought  his  crew  to  "Wrangel 
Island  in  safety  but  for  his  extended  experience 
with  me  in  negotiating  the  apparently  insuperable 
pressure  ridges  of  the  polar  ocean. 

The  authority  for  these  statements  is  Bartlett. 

Low  temperatures,  ranging  anywhere  from 
twenty  to  sixty  degrees  below  zero,  keeping  a 
party's  brandy  solid;  having  to  march  all  day  in 
the  face  of  a  blinding  snow-storm,  with  the  wind 
piercing  every  opening  in  the  clothes,  and  then 
having  to  build  an  igloo  for  shelter  at  the  end  of 
the  day,  are  other  hardships.  During  some 
sledge  journeys  the  wind  scarcely  ceases  to  blow 
for  an  hour.  Its  infernal  rush  and  assault  cuts 
and  blisters  faces  and  sets  eyes  stinging  with  pain, 
and  at  the  end  of  every  day's  march  in  the  field 
faces  are  rubbed  with  vaseline,  and  sometimes 
wine  of  opium  applied  to  the  eyes. 

Another  ever-present  danger  in  sea  ice-work  is 
that  of  breaking  through  young  ice  and  getting 
wet.  A  mishap  of  this  kind  is  to  be  dreaded,  for 
even  if  a  man  is  able  to  get  out  of  the  water 
quickly  he  would  soon  freeze  in  such  low  tempera- 
tures with  no  igloo  and  change  of  clothes  at  hand. 

For  a  sledge-journey  of  any  length  across  the 
polar  sea  the  method  of  advance  and  supporting 
parties  has  proved  the  most  effective.  A  pioneer 
party  was  introduced  for  the  first  time  in  my 


r 


CROSSING    NAItliDW   I.KAD 


4 


li* 


4^ 


THBOI  cil    A   <    \  \<>\    OF    l  HE    POL  vi:   "'  I   \  N 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  299 

work,  and  while  supporting  parties  had  bees  D 
before  in  polar  work,  they  had  never  been  util- 
ized on  such  a  scale  as  on  my  last  expedition. 

The  pioneer  party  was  made  up  of  four  expe- 
rienced and  energetic  men,  with  lightly  load.-. I 
sledges  and  the  best  dogs  in  the  pack.  This  divi- 
sion left  Cape  Columbia  under  the  leadership  of 
Bartlett  twenty-four  hours  ahead  of  the  main 
party.  In  all  kinds  of  weather  and  regardless  of 
every  obstacle  except  impassable  leads,  a  march 
was  to  be  made  every  twenty-four  hours  (later 
when  the  sunlight  was  continuous  during  the 
twenty-four  hours  the  advance  party  kept  only 
twelve  hours  ahead  of  the  main  division),  break- 
ing the  way  and  in  fact  setting  the  pace  for  the 
main  party,  which,  having  to  waste  no  time  in 
choosing  and  breaking  a  trail,  could  cover  the 
same  distance  as  the  reconnoitering  party  in  less 
time,  even  with  more  heavily  loaded  sledges. 
Bartlett  traveled  ahead  of  his  division,  usually  on 
snow-shoes,  picking  a  trail.  My  main  party  was 
large  enough  to  permit  the  withdrawal  of  the  men 
from  the  advance  party  to  the  main  party  as  they 
became  exhausted  by  the  hard  work  and  lack  of 
sleep;  and  the  sending  out  of  fresh  men  to  con- 
tinue the  work.  This  enabled  me  to  conserve  the 
strength  of  those  who  were  to  make  the  final  dash 
for  the  pole. 

The  advantages  of  supporting  parties  cannot 
be  too  strongly  emphasized.     It  is  impossible  for 


300  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

a  party,  either  large  or  small,  to  drag  food  and 
fuel  enough  to  sustain  life  in  themselves  and  their 
dogs  for  a  distance  of  some  nine  hundred  miles 
across  the  polar  sea.  Just  as  soon  as  a  party 
consumes  the  provisions  of  one  or  two  sledges 
the  drivers  and  dogs,  (being  just  so  many  super- 
fluous mouths),  should  be  sent  back  to  headquar- 
ters with  their  empty  sledges.  When  another 
sledge-load  or  two  of  provisions  have  been  de- 
pleted, their  drivers  and  dogs  should  likewise  re- 
turn. In  all,  four  supporting  parties  were  sent 
back  one  after  another,  the  last  one  in  command 
of  Captain  Bartlett,  leaving  me  near  the  88th  par- 
allel. Up  to  this  point  I  had  traveled  in  the  rear 
of  my  party  to  see  that  everything  was  going 
smoothly.  On  sending  back  Bartlett 's  division, 
however,  I  took  my  place  at  the  head  of  the  party 
which  was  to  make  the  final  dash.  This  was  of 
necessity  a  small  group  and  most  carefully  chosen, 
consisting  of  Henson  and  four  of  my  best 
Eskimos. 

The  second  important  duty  of  the  supporting 
parties  is  to  keep  the  trail  open  so  the  main  party 
can  return  rapidly.  That  this  is  no  slight  con- 
sideration is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  twenty- 
four  hours  or  sometimes  in  twelve  hours  the  fierce 
winds  of  the  North  will  start  the  jamming 
of  the  ice-floes,  throwing  up  pressure  ridges  and 
causing  leads.  Ordinarily,  though,  the  ice  will 
not  change  much  in  eight  or  ten  days,  and  a  party 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  301 

returning  follows  the  outward  trail,  patching  np 
any  faults  or  breaks  which  have  occurred  in  it 
since  it  was  broken.  The  next  party,  returning  a 
few  days  later  from  a  point  still  farther  north, 
knits  together  the  broken  places  in  its  own  trail, 
and,  coming  to  that  of  the  first  returning  party, 
smooths  over  any  breaks  which  may  be  found. 
The  next  party  does  the  same,  and  so  on  until  the 
main  party  on  its  return  has  simply  to  follow  the 
trail  of  the  supporting  parties  instead  of  having 
to  reconnoiter  and  make  a  new  one.  With  no 
trail  to  make  and  the  dogs  eager  to  follow  a  beaten 
track  leading  homeward,  the  speed  of  the  main 
party  on  my  last  expedition  was  greatly  increased 
on  its  return  march,  the  upward  journey  having 
been  accomplished  in  twenty-seven  marches  while 
the  return  was  made  in  sixteen.  In  addition  to 
the  advantage  of  having  a  well  broken  trail  to  re- 
turn by,  the  returning  division  uses  the  snow 
igloos  which  were  built  on  the  way  north,  thus 
saving  time  and  energy  which  the  building  of  a 
new  igloo  at  the  end  of  each  long  march  would 
mean. 

As  far  as  the  polar  dash  was  concerned,  the 
work  of  each  supporting  party  was  finished  as 
soon  as  it  reached  land.  Each  of  these  parties, 
consisting  of  four  men,  was  entirely  independent, 
having  its  own  provisions  and  a  complete  travel- 
ing outfit.  With  the  exception  of  the  kitchen  box 
containing  the  alcohol-stove  and  cooking-utensils, 


302  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

each  sledge  was  complete.  In  the  event  of  a  mis- 
hap and  the  loss  of  the  cooking-outfit,  the  division 
losing  it  would  have  to  double  up  with  another 
division. 

The  number  of  miles  covered  in  each  march 
was  first  determined  by  dead  reckoning;  that  is, 
by  taking  the  compass  course  for  direction  and 
the  mean  estimate  of  Marvin,  Bartlett,  and  my- 
self for  distance  traveled.  At  intervals  of  sev- 
eral days  this  was  verified  by  observations  for 
latitude,  and  proved  to  be  satisfactorily  approxi- 
mate to  the  results  obtained  by  our  astronomical 
observations. 

For  tractive  power  I  have  always  used  the  Es- 
kimo dogs,  and  believe  they  are  the  only  motor  for 
polar  work.  Eight  dogs  are  required  to  haul  the 
standard  load,  but  with  an  extra  load  or  for  fast 
traveling  I  have  sometimes  used  ten  or  twelve 
good  dogs.  The  dogs  are  attached  to  the  sledges 
fanwise,  the  king  dog  of  the  team  taking  the  lead, 
and  there  is  no  peace  among  the  dogs  of  each 
team  until  it  has  been  definitely  settled  among 
themselves  which  animal  is  the  best  or  strongest 
j  of  the  lot.  The  Eskimos  make  their  harnesses 
|  of  sealskin,  but  when  the  dogs  are  living  on 
short  rations  they  will  eat  anything  made  of  this 
material,  and  to  prevent  this  I  have  used  a 
special  webbing  or  belting  two  and  a  half  inches 
wide.  Instead  of  making  the  traces  of  raw-hide, 
as  the  Eskimos  do,  I  have  substituted  braided 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  808 

linen  sash-cord  for  it.    My  dog  harm  were 

made  on  the  same  pattern  as  the  Eskimos',  two 
loops  of  belting,  through  which  the  dog's  forel< 
pass,  attached  by  a  cross  strip  under  the  throat 
and  another  back  of  the  neck.  The  ends  of  the 
loops  are  brought  together  over  the  middle  of  the 
dog's  back,  and  the  trace  fastened  to  them,  mak- 
ing a  flexible  harness  which  will  permit  a  dog  to 
pull  to  the  full  extent  of  his  strength  withoul 
cramping  or  chafing  him.  The  art  of  guiding  a 
team  of  lively  Eskimo  dogs  by  the  voice  and  raw 
hide  whip  twelve  or  eighteen  feet  in  length   is 

I   something  which  requires  long  time  and  great  pa- 
tience to  master. 

r  Other  explorers,  British  and  Norwegian,  have 
smacked  their  lips  in  the  pages  of  their  narra- 
tives and  reveled  in  their  "hoosh"  and  pemmi- 
can  stew,  even  though  there  were  lumps  of  ice 
in  it.  In  all  my  expeditions  after  the  first  one, 
when  some  members  of  the  party  made  them- 
selves sick  by  eating  too  much  pemmican  stew,  no 
attempt  has  been  made  at  cooking  or  even  warm 
ing  the  pemmican  ration.  It  has  invariably  been 
eaten  like  a  piece  of  cake  or  pie,  just  as  it  came 
out  of  the  tin.  In  this  way  much  economy  of  time 
and  fuel  has  resulted. 

Pemmican  is  the  most  satisfying  food  I  know 
of.  Many  times  I  have  reached  camp  feeling  as  it" 
I  could  eat  my  own  weight,  and  the  one  half-pound 
ration  of  pemmican  has  seemed  painfully  small. 


304  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

But  by  the  time  I  had  finished  I  would  not  have 
gone  out  of  the  igloo  for  the  finest  spread  New 
York  could  furnish. 

The  snow  house,  or  igloo,  of  the  Eskimos  has  a 
value  and  a  meaning  in  the  scheme  of  a  serious 
polar  sledge-journey  far  beyond  its  superior  com- 
fort as  compared  with  a  tent. 

The  igloo  and  suitable  fur  clothing  permit  dis- 
carding tent  and  accessories  and  sleeping-bags. 
These  items  are  among  the  so-called  "constants" 
of  a  sledge-load,  that  is,  those  items  which  remain 
the  same  throughout  the  journey  as  distin- 
guished from  the  food,  which  is  constantly  dim- 
inishing. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  tent  and  sleeping-bags  do 
not  remain  a  "constant"  weight,  but  increase  in 
weight  with  steadily  accumulating  frozen  mois- 
ture. On  the  British  North  Pole  Expedition  of 
1875-76  the  weight  of  tent  outfit  for  a  sledge- 
party,  and  its  increase  in  weight  during  the  jour- 
ney, are  given  as  follows.  ("Voyage  to  the  Polar 
Sea,"  Nares,  Vol.  1,  page  172.) : 

Before  Starting  On  Return 

Tent    31  pounds  14  ounces  55  pounds 

Sail    9  pounds    1  ounce  17  pounds 

Coverlet    21  pounds    1  ounce  48  pounds 

Lower  robe    18  pounds    4  ounces  40  pounds 

Floor  cloth    11  pounds    4  ounces  29  pounds 


Total   91  pounds    8  ounces      189  pounds 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  808 

Sleeping-bags  increased  in  weight  from  8 
pounds  2  ounces  to  17  pounds.  That,  however,  Lb 
somewhat  beside  the  main  point,  which  is  this: 
The  elimination  of  tent,  accessories,  and  Bleeping- 
bags  means  the  ability  to  carry  an  additional 
amount  of  pemmican  equal  to  the  weight  of  tent 
and  bags,  and  pounds  of  pemmican  mean  miles 
of  travel.  The  definite  and  vital  application  is 
this:  Shackleton  in  1909  was  obliged  to  stop  when 
within  ninety-seven  miles  of  the  south  pole  and 
return  because  his  food  was  not  sufficient  to  take 
him  there  and  back  to  his  ship. 

Shackleton's  tent  and  sleeping-bag  outfit  for 
his  southern  party  of  four  men  weighed,  wh<  n 
dry,  one  hundred  pounds. 

Two  tents,  with  poles  and  floor  cloths,  each  weighing  com- 
plete 30  lbs.  Four  sleeping  bags,  each  weighing  10  lbs.  when 
dry.— "The  Heart  of  the  Antarctic,"  Shackleton,  Vol.  I,  p.  248. 

If  in  place  of  his  tent  and  bags  he  had  had  one 
hundred  pounds  of  pemmican,  he  could  have  made 
the  distance  and  could  have  won  the  pole. 

One  hundred  pounds  of  pemmican  represei 
twenty-five  days'  rations  for  four  men. 

During  the  winter  of  1905-06,  on  board  the 
Roosevelt,  Marvin  and  I  worked  out  very  thor- 
oughly, first  with  pencil  and  paper,  and  afterward 
graphically  with  the  assistance  of  a  long  twelve- 
inch-wide  board  and  a  twelve-foot  graduated 
measuring-rod,  match-boxes  for  sledges,  and  per- 


306  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

cussion  caps,  of  which  I  had  a  large  number,  for 
rations,  an  arrangement  for  a  continuous  post- 
road  transportation  service,  with  snow  igloo  sta- 
tions at  convenient  distances.  This  system,  with 
my  men  and  my  equipment,  could  be  kept  in  com- 
mission regardless  of  temperatures  or  the  dark- 
ness of  the  winter  night,  barring  only  those  oc- 
casional blizzards  during  which  both  man  and 
beast  must  seek  and  remain  in  shelter. 

By  this  arrangement  an  advance  party  could 
be  pushed  ahead,  kept  provisioned,  and  its  com- 
munication with  the  rear  kept  intact  during  any 
season  of  the  year  and  for  any  distance  with  the 
regularity  of  a  Maine  winter  lumber-camp  tote- 
road — granted  a  permanent  surface. 

I  found  that  this  method,  attractive  as  it  was, 
could  not  be  utilized  on  the  uncertain  surface  of 
the  frozen  north  polar  sea,  and  it  was  given  up 
for  that  region. 

It  is  entirely  practicable  in  the  antarctic  region, 
where  the  surface  is  permanent  and  unchanging 
from  year  to  year,  and  by  utilizing  it  some  future 
explorer  of  that  region  can  travel  at  will  as  far 
as  and  in  any  direction  he  may  desire. 

In  the  active  working  out  of  a  polar  advance 
there  are  numbers  of  details  of  practical  technic. 
/  If  the  line  of  march  lies  through  deep,  soft  snow, 
an  active  man  in  the  lead,  with  broad  packers* 
snowshoes,  can  tread  a  trail  that  greatly  reduces 
the  labor  of  the  following  dogs.    If  there  are  two 


SLEDGE-TK.W  ELING  807 

men  to  put  in  advance,  the  road  is  still  further  im- 
proved. Such  a  road,  once  made  by  Bnowshoes 
and  sledges,  can  be  detected  even  in  the  darkness 
of  the  winter  night  by  its  distinctly  firmer  con- 
sistency. 

Sledges  should  always  travel  in  single  file  so 
as  to  utilize  to  the  utmost  the  trail-breaking  of 
each  sledge.  Of  course  the  brunt  of  the  work 
comes  on  the  leading  sledge.  The  next  Bledge  finds 
it  somewhat  easier,  the  next  easier  yet,  until  tin- 
last  sledge  has  a  firmly  beaten  1  rail  over  which  to 
travel.  To  equalize  work,  I  had  the  leading 
sledge  at  the  end  of  each  hour  drop  back  to  the 
rear.  In  this  way  each  driver  and  team  of  dogs 
had  an  equal  share  of  the  work. 

Contrary  to  popular  opinion,  a  trail  across  Bea 
ice  or  inland  ice  made  by  the  passage  of  a  party 
of  several  sledges  and  teams  of  dogs  can  be  rec 
ognized  and  followed  by  those  who  have  the  train- 
ing and  knowledge,  weeks  or  even  mouths  aft- 
erward.   A    snow-storm    does   not    obliterate    a  I 
trail  for  any  considerable  consecutive  distance.! 
In  these  latitudes  a  fall  of  snow  is  usually  soon 
followed  by  wind,  and  while  this  wind  may  drift 
and  pack  snow  over  one  section  of  the  trail  a  few 
hundred  yards  in  length,  in  other  places  it  will 
scour  the  snow  away  and  leave  the  straight  lines 
of  the  sledge-runners,  the  print  of  a  man's  mocca 
sin,  or  the  five-leaf  clover-like  impression   of  a 
dog's  foot  standing  up  in  relief   from   tin-   BUT 


308  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

\  rounding  surface.  Every  effort,  however,  was 
made  in  my  work  to  strengthen  the  marking  of 
the  trail,  and  thus  make  it  easier  to  follow  on  the 
return  march,  because  retaining  the  trail  was 
such  a  vital  matter  in  the  interests  of  speed  and 
conservation  of  energy.  Tins  of  pemmican  emp- 
tied at  each  camp  in  feeding  the  dogs  and  mem- 
bers of  the  party — these  tins  being  painted  bright 
red  or  blue — were  cut  in  half  and  left  on  a  pin- 
nacle of  ice  or  sticking  up  in  the  trail  every  half- 
mile  or  so  of  the  next  march. 

Tired  dogs  near  the  end  of  a  march  can  be 
brightened  up  and  enticed  over  the  last  mile  or 
two  if  the  leader  of  the  party  snow-shoeing  in 
advance  of  the  sledges,  indulges  in  the  Eskimo 
pantomime  of  sighting,  following,  and  creeping  up 
upon  an  imaginary  seal,  polar  bear,  or  musk- 
oxen.  In  crossing  comparatively  narrow  lanes  of 
very  thin  young  ice,  where  a  driver  was  obliged 
to  cross  in  another  place  than  the  sledge  in  order 
not  to  concentrate  the  weight  too  much,  and  where 
it  was  vital  that  the  dogs  should  go  across  at  full 
speed  and  not  stop  until  the  load  was  across,  for 
if  they  did,  the  sledge  would  go  through,  I  sent 
one  man  across  in  advance  to  a  place  fifty  or  a 
hundred  feet  on  the  firm  ice  beyond  the  other  edge 
of  the  lead,  and  then  in  plain  sight  of  the  dogs  he 
would  stoop  down  and  chop  up  an  imaginary  piece 
of  walrus  meat,  at  the  same  time  giving  the  food- 
call  to  the  dogs.    As  a  result  of  this  deception, 


SLEDGE-TRAVELING  809 

the  dogs  could  hardly  be  restrained,  and  when  al 
the  proper  moment  they  were  allowed  to  Btart, 
nothing  short  of  an  earthquake  couM  Btop  the 
team  till  it  had  reached  tbe  man  on  the  other  Bide. 
On  one  or  two  occasions  the  sledge  partly  break- 
ing through  before  the  other  side  was  reached, 
was  rushed  out  of  the  water  and  to  safety  by  tin1 
dash  and  impetus  of  the  dogs.  This  same  method 
is  also  practicable  in  crossing  the  snow-bridges  of 
the  masked  crevasses  of  the  great  ice  of  Green- 
land and  the  antarctic  regions. 


CONCLUSION 

AT  the  request  of  friends  I  have  turned  away 
briefly  from  other  work  to  take  up  the 
threads  of  the  past  and  write  this  book. 

That  other  work  which  has  been  demanding  my 
attention  has  a  very  pronounced  bearing  on  polar 
exploration,  and  in  fact  upon  all  exploration. 

Five  years  ago  at  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Ex- 
plorers'  Club  I  ventured  the  prophecy  that  in  a 
few  years  the  polar  regions  would  be  reconnoitered 
and  explored  through  the  air.  The  last  three 
years  of  warfare  abroad  have  forced  the  develop- 
ment of  the  aeroplane  to  such  a  degree  that  the 
time  is  now  very  near  when  aeroplanes  will  have 
such  extended  radius  of  certain  flight  as  will  make 
the  preliminary  reconnaissance  of  the  unknown 
areas  in  the  north  and  south  polar  regions  a  mat- 
ter of  a  few  weeks  instead  of  several  years. 

The  sheltered  inlets  of  Bowdoin  and  McCor- 
mick  Bays  in  Whale  Sound,  Greenland,  are  read- 
ily accessible  every  summer  to  a  ship  like  the 
Roosevelt  and  an  ice  master  like  Bartlett.  In 
these  inlets  during  August  there  are  days  and 
days  of  brilliant,  calm,  warm  weather,  with  tem- 
perature above  the  freezing  point,  and  it  is  con- 

310 


CONCLUSION  81 1 

tinuous  daylight  throughout  the  entire   twenty- 
four  hours  all  through  the  month. 

Four  hundred  miles   due   north — fonr   how 
aeroplane    flight— is    Cape    Columbia,    the    most 
northerly  point  of  the  North  American  world  seg- 
ment, and  less  than  500  miles  from  the  pole. 

A  squadron  of  aeroplanes  starting  from  I»<>\v- 
doin  or  McCormick  Bays  would  reach  Cape  Co 
lumbia  in  a  few  hours  with  the  whole  panorama 
of  Grant  Land  and  the  American  gateway  to  the 
pole  passing  beneath,  could  alight  on  the  linn 
level  "glacial  fringe"  at  Cape  Columbia,  onload 
their  supplies  and  gasoline,  and  the  supporting 
machines  be  back  at  their  base  in  less  than  a  day. 

From  Cape  Columbia  it  is  less  than  1400  miles 
in  a  straight  line  directly  across  and  over  the  pole 
to  Cape  Chelyuskin  on  the  Siberian  ( 'oast,  the 
most  northern  point  of  Eurasia.  To  "Wrangel 
Island  across  Crocker  Land  and  the  entirely  un- 
explored region  between  the  pole  and  Bering 
Strait  it  is  about  1500  miles. 

From  Cape  Columbia  to  Spitzbergen,  it  is  000 
miles,  to  Franz  Josef  Land  less  than  1000  miles, 
and  to  Point  Barrow  about  1400  miles. 

The  present  average  speed  of  aeroplanes  is 
about  100  miles  per  hour.  By  the  time  this  meets 
the  reader's  eye  continuous  flights  of  1000  miles 
or  more  will  be  a  matter  of  record.  Tn  the  near 
future,  continuous  flights  of  200<>  miles  will  be 
made. 


y 


312  SECRETS  OF  POLAR  TRAVEL 

A  squadron  of  aeroplanes  with  base  at  Cape  Co- 
lumbia, flying  in  pairs  and  making  simultaneous 
trips  could  with  good  fortune  make  the  reconnais- 
sance indicated  above  in  two  weeks,  then  return 
to  Bowdoin  or  McCormick  Bays  and  take  their 
ship  home. 

From  the  base  in  Bowdoin  or  McCormick  Bays 
a  week  of  successive  flights  northeast,  east  and 
southeast,  would  clear  up  all  the  interior  features 
of  the  great  island  continent  of  Greenland. 

In  the  South  Polar  regions  with  a  base  at  Mc- 
Murdo  Sound  in  Eoss  Sea,  south  of  New  Zealand, 
— the  favorite  base  of  Scott  and  Shackleton, — a 
flight  of  1800  miles  across  and  over  the  South  Pole 
would  reach  the  known  portion  of  Weddel  Sea  on 
the  opposite  side,  and  flights  of  2000  miles  would 
command  the  entire  Antarctic  continent. 

In  the  very  near  future  the  biting  air  above  both 
poles  will  be  stirred  by  whirring  aeroplane  propel- 
lers, and  when  that  time  comes  the  inner  polar  re- 
gions will  quickly  yield  their  last  secrets. 

Looking  forward  to  this  certain  materialization, 
it  is  a  source  of  satisfaction  that  the  two  last  great 
physical  adventures,  the  winning  of  the  North 
Pole  and  the  South  Pole, — the  feats  which  clinched 
and  made  complete  man's  conquest  of  the  globe, — 
were  accomplished  without  the  aid  of  such  modern 
devices  and  inventions. 

It  seems  entirely  fitting  that  these  tests  of  brute 
physical  soundness  and  endurance  which  have  en- 


CONCLUSION  818 

gaged  the  attention  of  the  world  for  several  cen- 
turies, should  have  been  won  by  brute  physical 

soundness  and  endurance,  by  the  oldest  and  most 
perfect  of  all  machines — the  animal  machine — 
man  and  the  Eskimo  dog. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

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